Thursday, June 14, 2018

Bear in the Night


In 2005 I photographed a black bear out behind the house for the first time. That certainly wasn’t the first time one had been there – on a rainy day a few years before we had found the wet footprints of a bear that had walked through our breezeway. 

That 2005 bear was a handsome animal with a white blaze on its chest –



Several years later I began keeping a camera trap or two behind the house. A bear has been photographed by a camera trap once or twice a year almost ever since those camera traps were put in place –

2013

2014

2015

2016

In 2017 the camera traps didn’t catch a bear, but one appeared again this spring. It seemed to be a different individual since it was much smaller than the one that had so often been photographed here.



This time, in addition to the still cameras with the white flash, one of the camera traps took infrared video of the visitor –


We don’t mind our visitors; they almost always come in the night and except for occasionally scattering a few things from the compost pile barely leave a trace of their passing. The neighbors would be alarmed if they knew of the visits by the bear so we keep mum.

3 comments:

  1. Hello, awesome captures of the Black bear. I would love to see them in my yard, just not close up. I did see one last week in the Shenandoah National Park. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Sunday, enjoy your day and week ahead.

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  2. I've been capturing bears on our trailcam, too! Surprisingly, I had two at the same time! I thought we only had one bear!

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  3. I hope your neighbours don't follow your blog...they'd be in for a surprise!
    Kay
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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