Bears are still out and fattening up in the Sky Island mountain ranges in Arizona. This sow and her cub visited the bear wallow for a swim several times over the last couple of weeks. It won’t be long before they find their cave and curl up for the winter.
Tag: Conservation
Bear cub antics
It was a nice surprise to check this trail cam today and find that a family of bears visited the spring-fed wallow. Momma bear was just trying to relax, but her two cubs had different ideas.
Do bears sh*t in the woods? This video answers that question
A few weeks ago I found some bear tracks and a marking tree and decided to set up a trail cam and see what action it might capture. At the very least I was hoping to catch a bear simply walking by. After a week, I checked the camera and here’s what it captured:
A few days after the sow and her cubs passed by the camera site, this big male bear came through. He almost missed the scat pile, but then noticed it:
A Big Little Owl & Black Bear Cub
Here are two interesting camera trap videos, one from my yard and one from Arizona’s Sky Islands. The first video shows an alarmed Western screech owl in a birdbath during the day. She was trying to escape the 107 degree temps and her nestbox was too hot. I think a Cooper’s hawk landed on the fence near the birdbath.
In this second video, a black bear cub has a swim with her mom then takes an interest in my camera trap:
Bobcat Kittens!
I’ve had a camera trap set on my backyard pond going on 7 years continuously. I generally check the cameras every morning to see what critters have stopped by. In that time I’ve found adult bobcats to be quite common. However, this morning I was surprised to see the resident bobcat had brought her young kittens in for a drink last night.
Sky Island Camp Spot
A short video describing a recent camera trap check in one of Arizona’s sky islands.
Sky Island Camping and Camera check
This week I spent a couple days and nights in one of southern Arizona’s sky islands checking and setting new camera traps. The vegetation included oak woodlands and pine forests at elevations ranging from 5000′ to 8500′.
Here’s a selection of photos showing the range of beauty in the area:
The camera traps caught a few interesting animals. First, a group of wild turkeys. Watch with sound on:
Only one black bear came through since the last camera check a month ago. This one chose not to relax and wallow:
In all, it was an enjoyable two days away from all that’s not right in the world right now. Nature and wildlife are the best medicines. Zipper had a great time too, including naps:
Mountain Lions
One of my new camera trap locations recently caught an adult female mountain lion and one of her yearling offspring:
Western Screech Owl Nesting Update
The western screech owl pair have been busy feeding three hungry owlets. The nestlings appear to be nearing the time to leave their nest. Last night both parents made over 16 feeding trips which included grubs, geckos, and a small packrat.
On previous nights, prey items also included a small bird, western blind snakes, spiny lizards, moths, and even a hummingbird. Seeing the dead hummingbird getting eaten by an owlet made me sad as hummingbirds are dear to my heart.
The young screech owls have also been spending time checking out their daytime word:
Black Bears
When I first started camera trapping, mountain lions were my ultimate goal. It took me a few years to learn to track them and identify the best spots to place a camera in order to catch them in action. When that happened I was ecstatic. By chance, I had no idea I’d also be capturing lot’s of black bear activity.
That said, here are a few clips of black bears in action as captured by my cameras so far this year:
My Earth 