Saturday, April 23, 2011

The bears are back

It’s been ages since I posted anything here, mainly because I didn’t feel I had much worth talking about. Things didn’t work out exactly the way I had planned this winter and I didn’t get out as much as I usually do. Hopefully things are about to change.

Yesterday was a pretty nice day weather wise, so I took a break from spring chores and took the dogs out on the mountain behind my house for some much needed exercise. I let them run ahead of the pickup until I thought they had enough, and was about to stop for lunch when I saw a pile of bear scat on the side of the road. The first I have seen this spring. I set up a calling stand nearby, but nothing showed up. If this crazy weather we have been having will settle down so I can get a better handle on the chores that have built up around home, I hope to be getting out a lot more.



6 comments:

Momlady said...

Glad you are back!

Bob Mc said...

The bears are out of hibernation, and so am I.

Casey said...

Glad to see you back, Bob, and thank you for the little tutorial. I like to watch that kind of thing as only one or two bears will pass through NE Iowa in the spring only. They never hang around.

Take care -

Casey

John Going Gently said...

is chigger a welsh terrier?

Bob Mc said...

Casey - The bears come and go around here. They pretty much travel with the feed conditions. Right now they will pick up anything they can get. Still lots of snow in the high country, but they will move up the mountain as it melts. They will spend the summer in the high mountain meadows feeding on grass and young skunk cabbage, and berries later on. In the fall they will want acorns to lay on fat for the winter. If there is good crop of acorns here the bears will be too. No acorns, no bears. It’s funny how they seem to know where the good feed is. If there are no acorns you can drive for miles and not see a bear track. Find the acorns, and the bears will be there feeding like a bunch of hogs.

John - Think VERY BIG Welch Terrier. Chigger is an Airedale Terrier, 70 pounds the last time I weighed him. His Uncle Bear is even bigger. Welch and Airedale terriers look very much alike except for size. And where did you get that picture of you with a Welch Terrier? Where is Willow???

Bob Mc said...

John - Oops, my bad. Wrong John.