Hyperphagia, It's bear watching time

The bears are now in hyperphagia. That’s the time when they eat constantly preparing for hibernation, (as much as 22 hours a day). So, it’s easy to find bears, just look for trees with berries. Knowing such a place Becky and Fred joined us as we headed to the Grand Teton National Park. Arriving we saw quite a few people taking pictures at our favorite pond. They were all taking pictures of moose. In the pond below a cow and a new calf were feeding. The cow was grazing while the calf was waiting patiently for it’s nursing. After taking quite a few pictures we headed down our favorite trail. After a short hike we came upon a lady who said there were two bears below us. She said they were in the thick berry laden bushes.

Stopping for a bit and we could see a bush shaking but we continued on. The brush this year is the highest we have ever seen and so the bears could easily hide in the shoulder high vegetation. Besides the berry laden hack thorn bushes white snow berries were also along the trail in shorter bushes. Snow berries are another bear favorite but are poisonous if people eat them. Unlike last year we did not see any Oregon grapes, service berries, (also called June berries in other places), or choke cherries all three are good bear food. We walked further and encountered two other people who also said they had seen black bears. Waiting, we didn’t see any ourselves, so we returned to where the first lady still waited patiently. We could see brush moving and Renita said she could hear brush breaking. The bears have to be close to hear them especially with my bad ears. Finally, I heard an especially loud crack, and we spotted the black bear at the bottom of the hill.

As we watched, for nearly two hours, the bear fed nonstop.

We couldn’t get any good pictures as it was in such thick brush, but every so often we did catch a quick glimpse of black and the unmistakable black bear ears, The bear finally moved out from the trees and crossed thorough high grass. It never did look directly at us as it was completely consumed with hyperphagia.

It finally disappeared into the pine forest, and we headed back to our cars. Just before we reached the parking lot we saw another moose, this time a cow leading its smaller calf to the pond. As we watched a red squirrel ran up to Renita hoping for a handout, but we never give people food to wild animals!

Before we reached the parking lot, we spotted a thirteen lined chipmunk sunning itself in a bush.

It must have thought we wouldn’t se it and it remained on the branch it had selected for a siesta. A little further and a raven fed on a dead merganser.

Renita and I decided to drive to the LSR Preserve. There is a hike we love there but the parking lot was filled with cars. We decided to instead return to where Fred and Becky were waiting. We never did see any other animals, but it had been a great day with fou moose and a bear. Even if we don’t see any wild animals, it’s always a joy to see the beauty of Grand Teton National Park. Today we had seen four moose and a large black bear! Clear skies