I had a visitor yesterday afternoon. She made herself quite at home in my front yard.

“Ho, hum, I kind of like just laying here licking up seeds.”

“aahhhh ... time for a little stretch!”

“hey, did I say you could take my picture?”

“well, okay, go ahead then.”

“pretty, aren’t I?’

At first when I saw a tag in each ear and the darkish face of this bear I thought it was Minor, the cub from the year before. But after I looked up the photos of Minor I could see it was a different bear. The ear tags are in different spots. So, a completely new bear, and a young one at that. Probably a cub from last year turned out on her own.

I took these photos from the upstairs window that does not have a screen. She only looked up at me when I opened the window enough to get the telephoto lens of my camera out; she didn’t move an inch. She acted like she was right at home. She stayed until the mailman came by and he spooked her into the woods.

She came back twice more yesterday, the third time being after Rick had come home, so he got to see her. I had told him about the bear visits, so as he drove past the bottom on his way home he was looking for her. He saw her roaming around down there in the woods. Not ten minutes after he walked in the door we got a call from neighbor Kim alerting us to the fact that she was once again laying in front of our windows. We watched her for quite a while, but it soon became obvious she wasn’t in a hurry to move on. She scratched and pawed and found seeds that I think may have been buried all winter.  She did a lot of just laying there like an big, black, overgrown dog. Lazy bear. She reminded me of Doris who was always the lazy one and did the very same thing. I wonder if this is her daughter?

New bears have to be named. This bear had a distinguishing feature (other than the placement of her ear tags): a triangular patch of brown on her chest. So, by the authority vested in me by the black bears of my neighborhood, I hereby name thee “Patch.”

We’re hoping she’s taken up residence in our woods. Come back soon, Patch!