A few weeks ago I found my first Bears of 2016, the earliest date I've ever seen Bears. Since then I've made four more trips to Shenandoah National Park, and amazingly, seen Bears every time. Quite a welcome surprise, but definitely a surprise, for this early in the season.
 Three of my five bear watching trips this season have been of the same family that I first saw on March 10th. Other sightings have been of different mamas with their yearling cubs, plus a female that was very lethargic on a warm April 1st, I believe she had "cubs-of-the-year" (cubs born this past winter, not "yearlings" like the cubs I've seen already this year, which emerge earlier in the spring) still in a den close to where I saw her.
 Through all these sightings I only had my second Bear photo opportunity of the year a few days ago when I found the mama and three yearlings that I first found on April 10th, for my third time this year, and I was able to snap off this photo. 
 Mama and her three yearlings all looked really good, large for this time of the year with beautiful, healthy coats. This was great to see. 
 I will be in the park for most of next week and hope to find some more of my Bear Friends, and hopefully get some photos too!
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The 75 degree temperatures from the last few days here in Shenandoah coupled with some very early season plant material for the Bears to eat brought a mama and three yearlings out of their den this week! I spent a considerable amount of time with this family last year and it was so great to see that the entire family of four had made it through the winter alive and healthy. Mama had lost a lot of weight as all adult Bears do in their winter dens. The youngin's on the flip side always go through a growth spurt when they turn one. Although they also, of course, lost weight in the den they are now lankier and slimmer than they were when I last saw them three months ago. 
I look forward to many more adventures with my Bear Friends this year but this was a great first one....

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Recently I saw this Shenandoah National Park Black Bear Cub climbing down a tree after eating his share of wild grapes growing on the vines that were growing up along the tree.
In addition to up along trees, wild grape vines also grow on various other natural objects throughout the woods, such as this big rock. A few weeks ago while watching this young female bear she climbed down to this rock and started eating the grapes growing on the vines around the rock, giving me this photo opportunity.
Most all the Bears in Shenandoah have denned for the winter now and I sure will miss them until they emerge in April. I was up in the park last week and saw one family and that was my third ever December bear sighting in Shenandoah. I'll be back up to the park today but I'd be surprised if many, if any Bears, are still stirring around.

Here is another photo from my recent Yellowstone trip.
 Driving through the prime Grizzly Bear habitat of Hayden Valley we found a "wildlife jam" (a bunch of cars stopped along the roadway watching wildlife).
 We were hoping that they had found a Bear, but instead they were looking at this handsome large bull Elk.
 I managed to get a photo of him standing next to some sticks that are nearly the exact same color as his rack. It's almost as if he took some of the sticks and put them on his head for his rack :) hahaha

Black Bears are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, however this means it is not always easy to have the necessary light for a  good photo or video.  Nonetheless, this video of two bear cubs wrestling on the side of the road is just too precious not to share.  I hope you enjoy watching them as much as i did!  

​The 5th month of 2012, the year after my Junior Big Year is coming to a close.  This is not a Junior Big Year, however my birding is shaping up similarly.  The trips last year are what gave me the big numbers.  So far I have not flown anywhere this year and only have one flying trip planned for the rest of the year.  Obviously, my list is lower at this time than it was last year at this time.  Right now my "year list" is at 209 species, last year at this time that number was 302.  Call it 100 below, it is very close.   Although that is a big difference, the way the birds are shaping up is VERY SIMILAR to last year, only with less bird species since there have been less trips.  As an example, last year from mid April-mid May I was adding more than one year bird every day, on average.  Some days there would even be 5 or 8 "new ones".  This is because a large percent of wood-warblers, thrushes, flycatchers, vireos, etc. winter in Mexico or South America.  When the birds return for breeding, a lot of them pass through or breed here in Virginia, so the birds just "racked up".  A very similar scenario happened this year.  I had multiple days with 5-8 year birds and few days with none, from mid April-mid May.  However, at the end of the third week in May, here in Virginia the migration turns the "off switch" with not much notice.  By May 25th, Blackpoll Warblers and a few other "late warblers" are the only ones trickling through, and in very small numbers.  You still have the breeders (Redstarts, Ovenbirds, Black-and-whites, Chestnut-sideds, Hoodeds, Ceruleans, Waterthrushes, and so on) however they are all fairly common and I will have likely "picked them up" by the first week of May.  So come mid May last year year birds all of a sudden became few and far between.  In the first half of May last year I added 21 year birds.  In the second half of May last year I added 4 year birds.  A very similar thing happened this year.  In the first half of May I added 21 (do you see the pattern here?) year birds and so far from May 15-May 29 I have added 1 year bird.  

This shows you, that even when 2 birding years are very different, same patterns can and do occur with bird migration.

Even with birds being slow I've had lots of adventures with non-new birds and bears, etc. lately and I will hope to post an update from my recent adventures tomorrow.

Gabriel

​To start out February, my mom and I went birding in northwestern Augusta and Rockingham Counties today and we could not have asked for better weather or better birds!  

On Badger Road, a location familiar for being one of the few spots in the area where you can reliably find Red-headed Woodpeckers, we found them as well as a PEREGRINE FALCON!  Those were both new "year birds".  

​We also found American Tree Sparrow, Canvasback, and either a Common or Red-breasted Merganser as new 2012 year birds for me.  My 2012 year total is now 91 species.  I will update when I get an ID on the merganser from some more expert birders.

Enjoy a few photos from today.  Gabriel