It’s been about a month since Lily was last seen on September 17 and Jewel was last seen on September 22. Both are pregnant and therefore among the early ‘denners’ (if that is a word). Saying that makes me recall back when Lily was earlier yet in 2012 when she was pregnant with Eli and Ellie. On August 31 that year we found her lethargically lying near the den she was picking for that year and surprising us with a heart rate that was already down to 57 beats per minute. Her grandmother Shadow was also known for settling in already in August.
Now when most of the bears we know are likely well settled into dens, a couple late denners appeared on the cameras last night when no one was around with a proper camera to capture the moment.
Feeling the cooling temperatures in the forties (F), I saw a mother and fawn whitetail across the yard and wondered if they would respond like they do in winter when I go out onto the second floor deck and drop corn or nuts for them. They were eating grass and immediately went to the peanuts I’d dropped. A second fawn had heard it and emerged from the brush and came right to it. Nice to see that they remembered what we do.
 Hairy woodpecker with defective bill |
 Crow with crushed sunflower seed |
The most familiar face out the window is this female hairy woodpecker who has a hard time with her defective bill. She is the hardest worker once the flock of blue jays are full and gone. She spends hours every day using her tongue and upper mandible to ingest grains of ground-up sunflower seeds. She must be taking enough in. She has been coming for months. You can see the tiny size of a grain in the tip of the bill of the crow that horned in.
 Purple male finch |
 Dark-eyed junco slate colored male |
In the waves of other birds like this male purple finch that have gone through on their ways south, it is now the dark-eyed juncos of the color phase called ‘slate-colored juncos’ that are covering the yard. They are also known as ‘snowbirds’ because they are quickly followed by snow. With the temperatures dropping into the high thirties and low forties night after night, we’ll see how soon snow proves that ‘snowbirds’ are rightly named.
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center