Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Common Yellowthroats and a Black Bear

This holiday weekend I  took a walk  through a  wildlife management area belonging to a local college. The campus was deserted. I walked along a field of wild grasses and weeds redolent with the scent of flowering milkweed. Overgrown sumac formed a hedge along the other side of the path. On the far side, the field was bordered by a swamp and a wood with cathedral-tall trees. Prime birding habitat, and yet it was oddly quiet. Most birds were probably tending to their young, no longer needing to defend their territory against migrating males.The only birds I saw were a pair of Common Yellowthroats.. .





In contrast, my backyard was noisy and busy every morning after I had scattered seeds along the wooden porch railing, The home crowd was waiting; first the Chickadees, then a pair of Tufted Titmice with a bunch of begging juveniles, a pair of Northern Cardinals with the male occasionally passing seeds to the female, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and his  youngster, and, never far away, a crowd of Blue Jays. Soon chipmunks would appear to vacuum up the remaining seeds. Young squirrels were chasing each other, bouncing along and shaking the limbs and leaves of the tall trees surrounding our yard. High in the crown a couple of juvenile Crows were crying and wailing whenever their parents were near, sounding uncannily like human infants.

I had to take the feeders down because a young bear is roaming in the neighborhood and has come around our place several times now. The first time he stopped at the porch steps but moved on to the stonewall upon hearing our dogs bark.  I managed to get picture just as he was about to scramble over the stonewall into the adjacent field.



He came by again two days ago, this time not stopping at the porch but heading straight to stonewall as if this was a route he had travel many times before.



It's probably a yearling male evicted by his mother and trying to find his place in the world. Our neighborhood of fields and fragmented woods is not good bear habitat. So far he has not caused any trouble and none of the neighbors have called the game warden whose only recourse then would be to shoot him since he lacks the equipment to tranquilize and  move him out of the area. I hope though that eventually the bear will find a more suitable home.

Happy Birding!

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment.

23 comments:

  1. A Bear in your backyard ... now that is an interesting encounter. I do hope it finds its way to a suitable habitat.
    Similar situation here Hilke ... the garden residents are still very vocal at feeding time but elsewhere it is fairly quiet on the avian front.

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  2. I was enjoying the birds... then suddenly the Bear.
    Wow what a lovely post to share.

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  3. Shoot him!! Find the money and move him. Boom & gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  4. The black bear is very impressive. Luckily you worte this message so the encounter was safe!

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  5. Wow, neat photos. Love the birds and the bear. I hope the bear moves off, so he will not have to be shot.

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  6. Wonderful to have all that wildlife in your backyard..I HOPE no one reports him its his world TOO.
    excellent photos!

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  7. Oh wow, a bear in your backyard! I get excited to see the neighborhood raccoon family heading to the Taco Bell dumpster.... Awesome photos of him, hope he finds a better place to live!

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  8. Hi there - and I get excited when I find a snake! But a bear, thats a whole different scale of beast!

    Splendid post!

    Stewart M

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  9. Black bear in your back yard?! That would end my midnight walks! I love the word pictures of your opening paragraphs. You paint an idyllic scene!

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  10. Very nice captures of the "masked bandit", as I call them, and the bear.

    The game warden needs to find the resources to tranquilize the bear if it has to be moved from the area. There is no reason to kill it.

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  11. lovely photos of the yellowthroats, such pretty birds. The bear is very impressive, hope he finds a new territory that doesn't get him into trouble...

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  12. You managed to get a great shot of that young bear! He's beautiful - hope he makes it to a safe place.

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  13. Great Bear shots,love to see one,tried twice,maybe third time lucky next trip.
    John.

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  14. Lovely birds but the bear steals the scene! I hope it moves on by itself. Even small ones are frightening when you are too close.

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  15. That would be such a shame if the bear was shot. Like Sondra says, it's his world too.

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  16. Wonderful post. Love your composition and color in your bird images. Beautiful.
    Then suddenly, the bear. Great. I wish him a long and safe life.

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  17. Hi Hilke

    Wow great photos of the bear I hope the situation resolves itself peacefully. We have black bears on our land in Saskatchewan but all we see are the droppings.

    Regards
    Guy

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  18. Hi Hilke,
    Beautiful photos. I passed them on to my young gramdchildren, city-dwellers in Boston and Oakland California, and told them your story of sighting the bear while photographing birds. I know they'll love the story and your fine photographs. Thanks for sharing your work.
    Maggie N.
    Maggie

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  19. I love the bookends: warblers and ursines. Such a wonderful neighborhood you live in, Hilke! Thanks for sharing.

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  20. I would be very upset if the bear was shot. I hope you have neighbors that are as understanding as yourself Hilke.

    Last year we had a bear tear a sunflower seed caged feeder off the tree and mangle it to get the seed. It was a good idea to take yours down.

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  21. Many thanks for your comments! We haven't seen the bear for more than a week now. So hopefully he has moved on.

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  22. Wow, great bear shots! I have the same birds here but thankfully no bears! I hope he finds a (safe) new home soon!

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  23. I was looking for birds to watercolor when I found your blog and I'm amazed by the quality of your photography. The contrasts of light and shadows, and the close-ups of the birds are amazing. Is it OK if I try to make watercolor paintings of some of the pictures? I will give you the credit, of course. I'm just a craftster taking up the watercolor chalenge, (with no luck so far... he he)
    From Brazil,
    Vanilla

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