# MAMA BEAR +



## NorthernWinos (May 3, 2008)

We thought we saw a bear down at an old home stead on our land a few days ago...it was just a flash and we decided it was a garbage bag...

Come to find out there is a Mama bear and 2 cubs in a den right near where we were cutting fire wood a couple weeks ago...

Hard to see in these photos and I am dong my best running over the hill to try and catch some better shots...The bears are the black spots.

Mama bear in the door way of the den...calling her young-un's to come to the safety of the den....







Closer view...






Cubs tumbling down the hill...






The resident farmer was busy with is tractor around there all day...so...Tonight I went out for some more shots...The dang horses were hanging out right near the den....Kola kept looking right at the den between grazing bites....






These are not very good shots....I will try to get some better photos tomorrow....the horses will be locked up tomorrow unless they become bear-bait tonight....or...
Probably soon enough the whole bear family will be snooping around the house and farm yard.....

"Someone's been sleeping in my bed"




</font>*Edited by: Northern Winos *


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## Joanie (May 3, 2008)

Yikes! Don't be messing with bears, NW! They'll eat you!... or at least your porridge!


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## moose (May 3, 2008)

How nice to see such beautiful animals, especially with cubs.


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## mississippi mud (May 3, 2008)

Yea be careful around those mama bears!! Or any mama for that matter they are protective.


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## NorthernWinos (May 3, 2008)

Guess we can't live in fear.....but we can be careful.

This is truly a gift.


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## Wade E (May 3, 2008)

I dont see them in any of the pictures! I must be blind.


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## PolishWineP (May 4, 2008)

Please do be careful! We can skip the pictures and know you are safe instead. Those mama bears don't like the paparazzi chasing their cubs just to get good pictures...


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## Jack on Rainy (May 4, 2008)

N Winos,
You really do post some wonderful picts. The light in the one with the horse is special.
I don't get a'll the fear about black bear. Are there troubles overin your part of the state? We have them around often, particularly in the fall, and I can't think of a reported troublesomeincident. We just kind of leave them alone and don't pay to much attention. They are a prettywonderful sight swimmingacross a portion of the lake ormunching away in a berry patch. But, onthe other hand, I'm not trying to raise grain or apples!


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## NorthernWinos (May 4, 2008)

The bear aren't really a problem...occasionally they come into the yard and go through buildings looking for food at certain times of the year.....

Sometimes they are just being curious.....plenty of food in the fields in the fall...they really can wreck the corn and sunflower fields....

They kind of startle you when they are outside your window wrecking the bird feeders or cleaning the grill....the dogs have a particular high pitched aggressive bark, that's our clue there is a bear outside.

I am keeping my distance...that's why the pictures aren't very good. I am in the jalopy on the road.....This morning I got a quick photo bright and early, but the damn camera focused on the fence post and then they were gone back into their den.






Wade...sorry...but they are just black spots in the pictures...









The resident farmer has seeded wheat all around them today...I went out this PM and Jim had just dumped a loader full of rocks on the top of the hill....so they will be laying low till dark.

I am sure they will be a nuisance before the summer is over.
Kind of neat to have them here.....makes you realize Nature is doing it's thing.


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## grapeman (May 4, 2008)

I had a black bear come in the grain storage barn one time and cart off a whole bag of minerals used to mix in the cattle feed. I think it was an 80 pound bag and it carried it off in it's mouth leaving a trail ofminerals as it went. When it got in the brush, it tore the bag open and ate about half the bag. The vet said, don't worry about that bear coming back, it will be dead soon from all the minerals. I never did see that bear again. Now we have more mountain lions than bears(even though their existence is still denied by the authorities). I have confidence you will deliver us all a nice clear picture one of these days.


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## Wade E (May 4, 2008)

Not very often at all here but it does happen as last year my daughter and he schoolmate couldnt go out on the playground at recess as there was a black bear right out in the middle. The next day it was spotted in a backyard 4 houses up from ours but I was at work. I think they tranquilized it a few towns over from mine and transported it somewhere but they did not say where.


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## Lloyd1 (May 4, 2008)

Wow, I would never trust a bear!


Here in southern Wisconsin, we don't have much of a bear problem.
Northern Wisconsin has them tho, and they occasionally wonder south.


I live in a very wooded area, and there is many birds and animals.
A few years ago there werealot of grey fox around.
We saw them around the buildings all the time.
The picture below is one I took from my patio door .... laying on the floor.
I cropped the pic.
That's Ma's sage bush behind the fox.


Now the fox is gone, and we have coyotes instead.
The fox got along with my pet cats.
The coyote hascaught two of my pet cats so far



.... I still got two.


I like the fox better....... Damn coyotes .....


The pic:


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## NorthernWinos (May 5, 2008)

Lloyd...nice photo of the Grey Fox...what a pretty little guy......

We have coyotes and a few Timber Wolves...when you see the Timber Wolf you have no mistaking what it is.

There are an occasional Cougar roam through....where we lived before we had Bob Cats....guess they liked more trees because we haven't had any up here.

Nice to see the wild animals, seems their spaces are getting limited these days....and always someone wants to save the community and kills them....that is probably necessary in urban communities....so we are lucky to see such sights....and respect their space.


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## grapeman (May 5, 2008)

I saw a truly strange sight down at the Willsboro Farm a week ago last Friday. I could not poitively identify it, because of it's appearance. It was scavenging a manure pile a couple hundred yards from me as I drove by in the pickup and it ran off, sort-of. Now understand this location is right at the edge of Lake Champlain with the NYS Adirondack Mountains High Peaks area just to the west- about as remote as you can get in the East. The animal I saw was the size of a large dog, had a very stocky front end, shorter hind legs and instead of running like a dog, sort of ran with a sidestep, heeping eye contact with me as it ran away. All I could think of was seeing a brown Hyena................. But this is North America, not Africa.......... Maybe it was a large injured coyote, but it really didn't look like one. 


I guess it will give me another reason to bring a camera along to the vineyard.............


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## Lloyd1 (May 5, 2008)

Coyotes legs look different then a dogs.
It's hard to discribe....
The front legs seem to reach out further ... or something.


Here are is a pic of a coyote: Long legs, long pointy snout, pointy ears .... that 'reaching' front leg ....






Now speaking of strange looking animals ..... did you ever see a piebald deer?
It is a freak of the white tailed deer. ( If I recall right )
Anyway, its colors are like a calico cat.




It is part white, part tan, part black!
And the 'parts' can be ... half the deer, or spots, or .... just about anything you can imagine!
Google *piebald deer* for some shots.... they are strange looking!


I have seen this critter a couple of times, and got a video once.
It was almost dark, but you can see the 'odd' deer.
This is white tail country around here.


Let me expain the shot first .....
I have an 1100 foot driveway, and I've had some problems at the end of my driveway.
I have decided it was necessary to video record the 'happenings'.



and my 'DriveCam' was born.
It records the far half ofmy driveway.


The piebald was caught on my DriveCam.
To see the video &gt; http://www.box.net/shared/09qduw9kco


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## grapeman (May 5, 2008)

Lloyd I have seen quite a few Piebald Deer before. They aren't that uncommon around these parts. They can be very interesting. Once I saw a pure black doe, now that was a strange one. Then there was the doe that had one antler about 12 inches long. 


Seneca Army Depot in NY has a large Piebald population and allows hunts on their land for them every fall. My taxidermist has a number of them mounted. Some approach pure white and are very nice looking. 

<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Here is part of an article:
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A genuinely unique deer herd exists at the Seneca Army Depot in New York- the entire herd is white. Studies on these deer have shown that they are not albinos; they have brown eyes and some brown hairs. However, the white coat is inherited as a dominant trait. According to Leonard Lee Rue III in _The Deer of North America_, these deer are mutations and can occur in either sex. They became more prevalent with the help of man. Two albino fawns were noticed on this property in 1956. They were protected and the subsequent proliferation of white deer began. In 1958 there was one white fawn born, followed by two more in 1959. Again in 1960, two more white fawns were born. The mutant white Seneca herd grew from 7 white deer in 1960 to 135 in 1968. Recent estimates indicate that 400 - 500 white deer are residents of the Seneca Depot. Mutations are inferior to "normal" deer and should not be protected. However, white deer are protected in some states making the mutation more prevalent.






And a link to the site with that picture:
http://senecawhitedeer.org/history/deer.htm


The deer on our farm have a lot of white spots beyond what normal whitetails have, but not as many as a piebald.


As far as the strange animal, I honestly don't think it was a coyote. I have seen many of them before, and this one didn't look at all like them. I have the camera in the truck to bring along tomorrow in case I see it again.*Edited by: appleman *


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## NorthernWinos (May 5, 2008)

That's so cool.....nature is full of surprises.


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## hannabarn (May 6, 2008)

My son raises and trains hunting dogs. We have 7 dogs in the kennel and the bear still come on our deck to get at the bird feeder. I haven't been able to stay awake long enough to get a picture. He comes late at night or very early in the AM!


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## NorthernWinos (May 7, 2008)

This was the last photo I got of Mama bear....I think they 'flew the coop' and are running at large...



Must be looking for something to eat....

Haven't been able to catch them out lately.


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## NorthernWinos (May 7, 2008)

The neighbor agrees....The bears must be out of the den and on the loose....

We both want to peek inside the cave....I suggested he go first and I'll take pictures for The National Enquirer.

Along my route of 'Wind Shield Farming' [running for farm parts] I spotted these big black birds in a farm pond....there was lots of them....









I think they are Cormorants....
There is a large lake nearby where there were so many the DNR had sharpshooters killing them because they were eating the baby fish....Have to save the fish so the tourists can kill them.

And....a state holiday Saturday....Game Fishing Opener....


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## swillologist (May 7, 2008)

You win the prize NW. DefinitelyCormorants.







The bird that can't walk. If it can, it would be very little. It's legs are to far back on it's body. It is designed for swimming.*Edited by: swillologist *


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## bj4271 (May 8, 2008)

NW,


They are cormorants. I'm surprised they were shooting them - they are federally protected. We'd love to reduce their population down here.


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## grapeman (May 8, 2008)

Up here on some islands in the lake they have such high populations that the Fish and Wildlife folks were painting the eggs so they overheat and don't hatch. Seems about the only way to control their populations.


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## NorthernWinos (May 8, 2008)

We had never seen them before....then when I found out what they were....We remembered about them being shot to protect the fish.

They are surely not protected in the Land of 10.000 Lakes.


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