Wild Bear in the Woods

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:51:00 -0400

Steve was conducting his annual bird survey down in the Ocala National Forest (in Central Florida) last week when he rudely interrupted a Mama Black Bear browsing with her Baby Booboo Black Bear. He sent me pictures and a note: "The little guy got confused when mom hurried off at my approach. He just stumbled around wailing while I tried to take pix. Jesse (his dog) was beside herself, barking and hanging out the truck window while the little guy cried and cried. Mom started back several times only to turn away when she got too close to me. At one point the little guy came toward me, probably thinking I was his mom. Eventually mom got back close enough and the little guy followered her as they galumphed off across the savanna." No bears or naturalists were harmed in this encounter.

Re-located to No.Ky.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:10:00 -0400

Hello from Kentucky. Last month I packed up the dog and we drove to Northern Kentucky to stay with my brother's family. Last November my 26 year old nephew suffered a terrible injury that damaged his spinal cord causing loss of use of the lower part of his body. He requires a lot of attention until he learns to adapt to his situation with the help of physical and occupational therapists. He's doing well but of course we all worry about him none the less so I came up to be one of his caregivers until June.It is nice to be useful and it is nice to experience a "northern" springtime again after spending the last thirty years in Florida (I am kind of homesick...) We arrived on March 7th, within a few days the ornamental pear trees began blooming along with so flowering quince shrubs and redbud trees. At the same time the daytime temperatures reached 80F and then EVERYTHING began to bloom at once! I had just experienced an "accelerated" spring in Tallahassee and now again in Kentucky! I'm in Northern Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in this area but haven't lived here in more than 30 years. It's fun to visit my old haunts and see how the trees have progressed over the decades. Many of my favorites are still around and many of them are flowering species that I was hoping to photograph. It's disappointing that the record heat zapped the blossoms of many of the crabapple and flowering plum and cherry species prematurely. Many of the tulips that I saw were sun-burned and bleached. I did manage to photograph some beautiful white and pink dogwood trees, redbud and Japanese magnolia. Mostly though I'm focusing on taking pictures of the flowers of many of our most familiar tree species like the red maple and Norway maple. I'll have new photos and post Profile updates for more tree species later in the week. The heat wave is over in the Cincinnati area and now we're in for a few nights of possible hard freezes. I hope it doesn't happen but I'm going to cover up my sister-in-law's clematis vine and dark blue Stokes aster . Stay warm and frostproof!

Briarpatch Blog - Miscellaneous

Wild Bear in the Woods

Re-located to No.Ky.