Appletree Bear

Well...it was a long day out and about!...and it'll be longer if I try to write it all out!...but that was my thought at the start...to make a 'census' card like I saw at that site (see yesterday's post)...they're kinda charming...like a baseball box score in the newspaper...so I got as far as the Creek rip rap where I thought to sit awhile...and the Creek was in one of it's 'disneyesque' moods...I dont know what happens but sometime all the birds and critters just decide to congregate!...Hummingbird, Downys, Acorns, Flickers, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Robins, Blue Jays, Sparrows, Mallard, heard Hawk, and saw a little bird with black and white head...which I may have seen before...I sat on the rip rap for an hour...entertained!...then walked out to Creek's end and sat on Owl Log..the puddle under it has dried enough I can put my feet down!...and I hear two hoots from Owl!...or a Bandtail trying to fool me...Phoebe was out in the Merced...and Ouzel is back!...more Mallards...Ravens...Sandpiper...in the evening I went back to Owl Log...and sat along time...from Half Dome all sunlit to it's last pink glow...my feet went to sleep!...and looked all about with the binocs...from Owl Log I can see a duck at CAD beach..this beyond Half Stump!...and just this far too to Chapel Bridge...it's kinda weird to look through them...like a 3 d movie.....Phoebes were up and about...more Mallards...and this I wish Bear hadn't pushed off tonight's clip show!...Mama Merganser and Two were going upstream...and another Mama Merganser with Three...who were constantly peeping all the way from Chapel Bridge...were coming down...and they all collided right at Creek's End...there was a dust up!...bills in the air!...the clip's for another night sometime...along with Humming Bird Moth...and Fen Dragonflies...and some others from today...I saw a lot of things!

Now..for Bear...I'm coming back on the shuttle from Happy Isles nearing Day Use...really sleepy looking forward to a late afternoon nap!...and a photog with a long lens is backing up towards the front of the bus...taking pics of something behind through the windows...oh...I thought...that can only be Bear...so off I hopped at Day Use...and across from the A Meadow...Bear was under an apple tree...I guess it's a cub...everyone was calling it a cub...and there were tons of everyone!...I got some distant clips and some comical ones of the Bear Jam traffic...and then picked up and headed home....but Bear was paralleling my path...so got another clip...and then I could see it's path would narrow from the river and the road to Sentinel Bridge...so I paddled through the parking lot...along the wall...where did the wall come from!...and at it's end made a left to the river...and not really expecting to... happened on Bear in a dry side channel contentedly eating grasses...I had Bear to myself for like twenty minutes...and then it started to move to the Merced...and I thought to go to the river's edge and wait...I had some willows? blocking view of me...and of Bear...but I could tell where Bear was from two kids on the other bank watching...if one loses sight of a critter during a 'jam'...look to see where others are looking!...I would have gotten a great pic and clip of Bear coming from the channel to the river's edge...but one kid started tossing river stones at a passing Duck....which is all I ended up getting...a very nice clip of a Mallard going by!...as the noise diverted Bear back where it came from...and I half hearted followed...but the whole earlier jam reoccurred!...and I just joined the paparazzi all the way back to Sentinel Bridge...Bear was in a bad way...it had no where to go...and headed again back into the trees thereabouts...I just set up on the Bridge for awhile...from there one can see where I was when it was just Bear and me!...picked up again and crossed the road to Cook's...and there's another jam at the Apple Tree by the Woodpecker Tree!..."another Bear?" I asked...No...it crossed the road while I was on the Bridge!...and was atop the Apple Tree with the tour guide for the Gallery photo walk group focused on it with her long lens...and calling out the F stop and shutter speed!!...I got so stumbly and clumsy with the buttons and tripod that I lost some of the whole show...but the clip has some of it....Bear finally took off towards Flicker Grove...and the French along the Path there were about to pursue until I finally said something throughout all this!...Stay on the Path!...and pantomimed they would be eaten...I thought I might have been rude..but their guide thanked me!...I went over to the Picnic Benches and sat awhile...and calmed down reviewing and editing...then over to Creek's End....

the thin clouds...making some coolness and shade...I think brought the Birds out at the RipRap beginning of the day...later there was more sunshine...

One of the most charming things of the day was I met a birdwatcher couple while looking up to see an Oriole (I think) at the Post Office...it was hidden in the cedar branches...and even with my binocs they couldn't i d it...but recommended a birdbook...Sibley....and later in the Happy Isle Nature Center I saw it and bought it...and later at Sentinel Bridge...the couple was in the Bear jam too!...so I had the opportunity to thank them...it's a nice book!