Have A Beary Happy Memorial Day!

Just popping in for a quick visit.

We've had a lovely holiday weekend here on the farm....

perfect weather.

I will tell you more about it in tomorrow's post,

but I wanted to share something that Dr. Becky found in our outdoor riding arena this weekend.

It seems we have had a few visitors in the arena...

There are bear tracks of three different sizes visible in the sand....

(Largest paw prints)

I am sure that the largest and the smallest were a mother and her new cub.

(baby paw prints)

But, the medium sized would make me believe there was also a yearling.

Normally, cubs stay with their mamas for two years...

and the mamas only give birth every two years.

So, I am not sure why there are a third set of medium sized tracks with the other two.

(Medium sized paw prints)

Curious about these tracks, I headed back into the woods to gather the

memory cards from the game cameras...

hoping they might give me some clues.

By the way, you might notice that there are two distinct types of footprints here.

In these two photos my fingers are pointing toward the hind foot paw print.

A bear's hind foot leaves a print much like a human's footprint.

The front foot is to the left of my pinky.

The front foot print lacks a heel mark.

There were about 5000 photos on the three cameras combined,

which yielded the following photos...

The only evidence of bear were these three photos...two of which were ears...

and a third, close-up of fur...

The next set of photos are the best from the rest of the images...

This is the first time I have caught a male wild turkey strutting his stuff on film.

So many whitetail deer...

I loved these images...

a young buck with the velvet on his antlers!

Wiley Mr. Fox...

A groundhog in the morning light....

As well as a couple of turkeys in the morning sun...

It always amazes me how teeming with life our woods are.

I love seeing these beautiful animals in their normal habitat and their normal routines.

Isn't this world a grand and wonderful place?