This morning on his way to work Rick phoned me to tell me the bears were out under their tree in the woods. No food for the birds today. Sure enough, around 9:30 Ursa, Minor and Major paid the front yard a visit. Even though they didn’t find any food, the proceeded to treat my front yard like a playground. Watching them was sheer enjoyment; they were having so much fun chasing each other around, play fighting, etc. They spent alot of time either on their backs with their legs in the air, or walking around on their hind legs.  Even Ursa got in the act and I couldn’t tell if she was playing with them or disciplining them. Hard to say. She did her fair share of acting totally silly [the last two pics are her]. It was almost like they were drunk. And maybe they were; drunk on spring!

I thought I was being clever this morning in thinking that I would not see the bears since it was snowing. We usually don’t see them if the weather is bad. So, I fed the poor hungry birds. Well, the birds managed to get some food before Doris came strolling up. It’s quite obvious now that she must be feeding a cub as her teats are very engorged. She stayed a long time.


I think she returned back to the bear cave/storm drain to tell Ursa because it wasn’t long after she left that Ursa and the cubs showed up. There wasn’t much left for them to eat. Ursa decided to check out all the cardboard boxes set out at the curb for recycle pick-up. Next thing I knew she had strewn the boxes every which way. There were a few dog biscuit boxes and she must have detected the odor. I had to go out and pick magazines off the road and put them back where they belonged and rescue a box from the middle of the yard and one from the driveway. Bears!

Rick saw Doris on his way to work in the woods under Bear Tree.
She was still there when I left to go shopping at around 10:30
On the way home from lunch wth Kim, we saw Ursa and one cub now under Bear Tree.
5:00 p.m. Ursa and cubs were just outside the front yard in the driveway. They did not approach the bird feeding station, but foraged around for awhile before returning in the direction of their home away from home: the storm drain.

Rick saw two bear approaching the house on his way to work.
While in the office about 4:30 in the afternoon, Daisy started barking, looking out the window. Ursa and cubs were at the bird feeding station, just walking away. No food for them! They walked the perimeter of the fence, foraging in the woods, but never came over the fence.
After that we had eight white-tail deer visit! Very exciting. They are beautiful creatures.

I did not put out any seed for the birds; Ursa and cubs came at 8:30 a.m. and looked very disgusted that they couldn’t have their feed. I don’t want them getting too used to finding food whenever they come. They quickly left. They returned in the afternoon in the back yard woods area on our side of the fence, foraging around but never entered the yard proper [grassy part].