Chickadee - WRI staff photoHolly left the bunker den briefly yesterday. If I were to guess, I’d say it was to urinate. Inside the den, Holly is hogging the hay. She brought it all in and made a wall of straw toward the door and another wall between her and Lucky. With so much straw, she’ll probably burrow down into it again. I hope so. It will give a chance to see if her weight loss will be less than the 24% of last year when she was sleeping on the bedding rather than burrowed into it. A Lily Fan captured her in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohIic12UxLg. Just now, the phone rang. A Lily Fan is sending a video from today of Holly making a big nest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNr8WqJD8KA&feature=youtu.be.
Marking pole - WRI file photoThe claw marks on the tree in last night’s update were from a bear climbing, but it stirred enough interest in bear sign to share the link to learn more about it http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/black-bear-sign.html. The picture from some time ago is of a telephone pole a bear marked for communication.
Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, traditionally the biggest online shopping day of the year. I hope shoppers check out the 146 new items on bear.org under the Gift Shop tab where it says New Items. http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop-pages/product/listing/18-new-items.html.
A Lily Fan sent me this short but great article about chickadees that has information I didn’t know. Appropriately for here, the photo in the lower right ad is attributed to a Lily Fan, Trish Kirk.
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2008/Backyard-Birding.aspx
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center