 |
| Greater Yellowlegs |
On the first day just when we reached the snowlike we got harassed by a pair of nesting yellowlegs. Brewster and Bode chased the birds all over and the birds kept up with their screeching. On the way down one of the yellowlegs even followed us for a full 1/4 mile past the nest! I did not expect to see yellowlegs in the alpine. I sort of associate them with lagoon and rivers down near the coast, but I gather they nest on high too!
On Saturday when we climbed Sharatin we got into the first bowl and there was a bear crossing the snow on the other side of the bowl. I was afraid the dogs would see him and give chase or that the bear would see us and trot on over to investigate. So I just stayed where I was and watched the bear. I was worried that if he did not leave that we would have to turn around and go home.
I was also thinking, 'gosh this is a bigger bowl than I remembered because that bear looks tiny'. The bear did mosy on out of view and the dogs and I continued our trek. I saw the bears tracks ahead in the snow and was thinking it would be great to get a picture of them. And then the tracks were barely Brewster sized - too small to even really photograph. The bear was a tiny one year old cub!
Then I got to thinking, 'where is mom?' We crossed the cub's tracks again on the top of the mountain. He had climbed up from the other side and then down on into the bowl where we first saw him. And no mom anywhere to be seen.
Back home talking to people who know about these things, I found out that there are more boar bears about than usual this year. And that they also have been attacking cubs and sows more than usual this year. Perhaps there are more boars out and about because there was no hunting season for bears last year? In any case, a big old boar probably separated the little guy we saw from his mom. His mom may find him or she may not - nature can be cruel at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment