Last night I went on the back porch to observe the weather. Sarah wanted to come too so I had her bundle up. We turned off the porch light so we could see the stars and moon better. I pointed out how we could see snow in the boxwood patch so we were ooohing and ahhing over that. Then...
She told me about how she and Amy had been up there yesterday and seen all sorts of tracks. Some looked just like dog tracks, they were Puppy-girl sized, some were Daisy sized and one was people sized. But it didn't really look like a people foot but more like a cross between a people foot and a dog foot. It was shaped like a sweet potato or cashew and had toes and claws. Hmmmm, my neck hairs stood on end. Like these?
Or the ones found Here.
I casually quizzed her on shape and size and we went inside. Amy described the same thing and I handed them each a pen and paper to draw what they saw, in separate rooms. They came up with the same exact thing, a bear track! Later Ryan verified by looking online at all kinds of tracks. He said it was definitely not canine, the toes didn't go around the pad but were across the top in a line. I let the girls look and they picked out several bear tracks that fit the bill.
They are banned from the hill/boxwood patch for now, unless they have a grown-up with them(preferably not me). Good thing their uncle is coming home today, he can go along.
My mom said that she and my dad saw a bear track up there once, on the trail Sarah and I went on a few days ago(wish I could get pics on here). I plan to investigate later. Where the kids saw the track is all grass, no way a track would show up after the snow melted, but the trail has muddy ruts so there might be one there.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Conversations with Sarah...
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6 comments:
If it's black bear or brown bear, they're pretty skittish, so just make plenty of noise when you're walking. If you have dogs with you, put bells on them. It'll scare the bears off. We've had black bear in our yard, but my daughter is such a singer and chatterbox that I don't need to worry about them sticking around when she's out. Just in case, I've told her about making her self seem big, making lots of noise and not running, but to back away slowly.
Betts, the kids are usually chatter-boxes so I imagine a bear would hear them coming a mile away though. However, I'm still thinking the ban is a good idea. We hiked up the hill to look for tracks. Didn't see any but the ground is *very* weird for tracks anyway. We did find a stinky, not too old deer vertebrae though. The dog started rolling on it and I picked it up. Definitely not something that had been there more than a few weeks. It smells horrible and is greasy feeling! It was on a side trail coming down from where they saw the tracks, about 50 yards down.
Wow! That is amazing! But scary too. It is good that you are putting a ban on walks there for a bit!
Very cool tracks, are these your photos? If they are, I was wondering if I could copy them for Noah's collection. He doesn't have bear tracks yet.
Keep those kiddies safe!
The tracks are very neat-a little scary-but mostly just exciting to think a bear is wandering around out there! We have black bear around our house-but I've only seen one in the yard one time-it's been about 6 or 7 years ago-it just walked through the yard and up the bank like it was on it's merry way to somewhere important.
Wow!
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