Mergansers And Bear

Starting out, I felt a bit like the Frazzle Deer in the Little Meadow!....lots and lots of tourists about....paddled over to the Post Office....picked up lunch...Grill too crowded!...vegi sandwich, gator aid, chips, hershys....and sat awhile at the Church Bowl and ate lunch....Flicker visited...and some Squirrels...picked up and took the Trail by the Royal Arches....and through the Backpacker Camp...the best camp!...and to the Stables...there, I crossed the Road and took the Pony Path...which I haven't done in a long time...and forgot what a nice trail it is, as it goes along the Merced North Bank(East hereabout!)....and it was nice and quiet!...and while contemplating the Moraine mound, I glanced over to the River and saw the Male Merganser...and was immediately all thumbs!...I dont have a pic of the male, 'cept flying furiously!!...and the female was beside...and I was able to follow them almost all the way to Happy Isles!...pics and clips...those up just a few...very hard to get a good pic of the male...the contrast between white feathers and black and the dark green head make it tough to make an exposure...tried to stay close up for the clips too..but that was very difficult...and I didn't want to startle them...last clip...for sometime...has them floating 'furiously' back down the Merced...the turn around point was by the Big Boulder...for sometime more of the clips!!...continued out to Happy Isles...and to Siberia for Pizza...on the way back, at Robin Woods (between Stoneman Bridge and the A. Meadow), tourists reported a Bear 'on a long log'....I found the log, and just as I did, a group of YIs came by....'Is it a Bear?"...'I dunno...'....there's like four hundred of them in the Valley...and mercifully, they all walked by...looking back at the Log, I caught a glimpse of the 'big cinnamon bear' I've been hearing reports about...got a couple clips...and was sighting in for a really nice one when 'crunch crunch' on the forest floor approached...one by one tourists showed up... thought I had concealment from Bear and them!...anyway, I gave a Bear lecture, as Bear had disappeared amongst the fallen logs, and I didn't want them all taking off after Bear!...which looked to be their intention...Bear was almost to the Bike Path to Sugar Pine Bridge....and I suggested backing up and swinging around to the Path, which one tourist did on their bike and found Bear by the River...I was slow doing the same, but over at the A. Rooms glimpsed Bear by one of the Cabanas, just behind a tourist photog with a long lens looking up at the Arches Falls...had to laugh at that sight!...all he had to do was lower and pan to the left for a great pic!...I caught one more glimpse of Bear near the Bridge...looked that Bear was headed back to Mirror Lake...and I followed out that way as far as the Indian Caves...but no luck...backtracked...almost same route as earlier!..and caught the Shuttle back to Last Chance...sunny blue with hazy clouds late in the day...Moon is getting bigger...maybe a Moonbow one of these upcoming nights...cool to see Cinnamon Bear...very cool to see the Mergansers!!...oh..saw a single Mallard while doing the Merganser clips...and Blue Jay was on the Cabin Nest this morning...clips of Jays two by two gathering nesting twigs...and some flirting Ground Squirrels...for sometime....oh...I deleted the clip by accident!!...backspacing the text...take a bit to put it back up!!