More bears, new birds, new action - UPDATE April 12, 2025
Carolyn with 3 yearlings
Four days ago I heard a happy voice on the phone saying, “Carolyn is back with her three yearlings!!” She proved it with this picture. April is wake-up month, and the bears will travel more and more as the snow melts. I was lucky to have 4-year-old Levi show up already on March 26.
Deer nibbling grass
Deer nibbling grass
Now with sprigs of grass appearing, the deer are not so anxious to eat corn. When they appear, I toss it out with the familiar routine as they look with beseeching eyes, but they abandon it halfway through and go off nibbling sprouts of grass.
Red Crossbill female
Red Crossbill female
Purple finch male
Purple finch male
Pine siskin numbers are waning from the hundreds that returned with the snowfalls a couple weeks ago to only about 50 now. Migrants such as purple finches and red crossbills are adding their colors now.
Yellow Morph Pine Siskin
Yellow Morph Pine Siskin
A little surprise is that the rare yellow-morph pine siskin that was here with the huge flock is among the fifty or so remaining. The yellow morph, sometimes called the green morph because some of the body feathers have a greenish yellow tinge, has more and brighter yellow with this individual even having a yellow rump patch. I’m glad he posed for an ID picture a couple days ago.
Herring gulls are returning, somehow finding their home area and showing that they remember the feeding routines here. One came to the window and looked in at me and did his usual by flying to the feeding spot when I started to get up. Also, the catchers appeared out the window today with a pair of them chattering as they sat on the feeding spot. It made me wonder if they were asking for food. Would they fly away when I opened the door? No, they stood facing me ready to catch slices of bologna that I throw like a Frisbie. I don’t know how far south they go in winter, but it amazes me that they can find their way back to the same home area probably hundreds of miles from their winter range.
Fisher male
Fisher male
Today with turkey vultures and unfamiliar eagles cruising over, I wondered if they would notice if I put a pile of fat trimmings out where others have landed before, but it was crows that took charge until the male fisher came and carried half the pile away. Soon the other half disappeared while I wasn’t looking—probably by the crows and herring gulls.
Wolf 4-10-25
A couple days ago an unfamiliar black wolf walked across the ice on the lake and looked like it would offer a good opportunity for an ID picture. I grabbed the long lens and hurried out onto the second floor deck. The wolf was at least two hundred feet away with his vision mostly blocked by trees. I could see him just enough to see him frantically ran for the forest. Four hundred or more feet away, he stopped and looked at me. I clicked, and he continued on without panic. Back to work.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 2194527 times)