This bear is a repeat visitor to our lot. I met him a few times up in the hills and have a pretty good idea where his den is. He's not much bothered by anything, but very cautious at the same time. Although bears are anything but predictable, this one seems very gentle, not like most of the sows with cubs that have charged me in the past.
The last two days he showed up in the morning and late evening at bedtime and dug up quite a bit of soil around our place, searching for some roots he may need before hibernating.
One must always be alert around our place, with a 360° vision, as this is just one of many bears passing through from spring to fall. After 20 years living among bears I'm glad I never had to shoot one of them to protect my family, although there where a few too-close-for-comfort encounters. Having a slug-gun handy when exploring the woods around here is a good survival practice.
It's a movie, as it was too early in the morning for a well lit photograph.
Tags: grizzly yukon bears mikofox
Today Winter arrived with a load of wet snow, which also brought these two wolves, caught by one of our surveillance cams, down from the hills. The black one in the front is the same wolf we saw a few times this summer in our garden. Just around the full moon we heard his lonely howl for several nights and obviously he found a mate, or reunited with the small pack that roams the area and goes after the moose calves and elk. He had been sticking around our place a bit too much for our liking, but he almost flipped over backwards today, when he had a close encounter with my son, who was walking up the driveway with his rifle, when they came down.
Tags: wolves yukon fox lake mikofox
This ermine has been a regular visitor in the past, probably after the mice in the attic.
Tags: yukon winter ermine mikofox
Last night I managed to capture the grizzly with the game-cam, when he came back to an area he had dug over earlier in the evening. He is a frequent visitor to our lot, digging for Bear Root or Liquorice Root [Hedysarum alpinum], which bears need to cleanse their system for the long hibernation period.
This bear has a habit of resting his head on his front leg when digging, which looks very relaxed. Maybe they all do that, but I have only seen it with this grizzly. He is quite unimpressed by humans, or by trying to scare him away, but so far has shown no aggressive behavior. Nevertheless when he is around at nighttime, we are a bit anxious when he have to go outside.
Tags: grizzly bear-root digging game-cam wildgamecam yukon fall september wildlife bear nighttime mikofox
Taken by my son Michael with his E-M10 and my old Tokina ATX 100-300mm f4 lens.
Most times these owls sit motionless and with closed eyes during the day, but this one was quite active.
Tags: Olympus E-M10 bird M10 november owl winter yukon Tokina ATX 100-300mm f4 mikofox