They're Stalking Me

     I swear the three triple cubs are stalking me. If you look back in August you'll remember the fun they had with my dripper set. This time I set up a camera on an old stump to test out some predator lure and who shows up the next day...momma and the three hellions. I had used some plastic lure capsules to put the lure in and stuck one in a crack on top of the stump and the other I stuck in the ground in a hole under the stump covering each one what some wool. Well, the crew made short work of these. They chewed them up and left them beside the stump for me. @#%$@#$ bears.
     On a bright note I've been helping my farmer buddy chopping his corn the last couple of weeks and we've found surprisingly little bear damage to the corn this year. With all the bear pics I'd gotten this summer we figured there would be a lot of damage this year.

The only pics I got of anything remotely close the a furbearing predator I had hoped for was this possum.

Near Encounter

I checked my cameras yesterday morning due to the forecast for rain today. Looking at the time stamps on the Mt. Pond pics I nearly bumped into the sow and triplets. They had walked past the camera about 15 minutes before I arrived. I didn't get all three cubs on camera but looking at the sow I'm sure it's the triplets. Would have made for an interesting morning if I was 15 minutes earlier.
For some reason the camera didn't think there was enough light when the bears came through to switch from IR to color pics. But did when I got there.

Note the cub in the tree on the upper left side.

@!&#*@!! Bears

I'm not real pleased with momma and the three cubs right now. As I mentioned last week I've been using a scent dripper at the upper mountain set. Well this week I found it on the ground chewed up and I have the culprits on camera. They were nice enough to deposit it limb and all right in front of the camera.

 This is what the dripper set looked like prebear. I
had set it to drip on the rock below it.

 They came to the set the day before it got torn down and just played
around it.

Apparently this one thought it would the great to smell like salmon
oil.That was the scent I was trying out.

 Hey look!! A toy for the kids.

 No problem snapping the branch off.

 OK kids. Have fun.

 Now lets check the camera to be sure it's working.

 Yeah! Let's drag it over in front of the camera so Joe will know for
sure it was us.

 This is how they left it.

 Right in front of the camera.

I think I may be able to repair it with some silicone and epoxy.They
just chewed on the cap and screw on part of the main bottle. This was
why I was hesitate to put one of my good drippers out with all of the
bear activity.

Bear Triplets and More

Last Sunday I kept putting off going to check the cameras because it looked like rain all afternoon and it never rained a drop. Same thing today so I decide to go ahead and check them early. So on the 4-wheeler and away I go. Check my first camera and what do I have...ANTS. Could someone please explain to me how ants get inside a "water proof" camera??? This is the third time I've had this happen on three different cameras. #@%&%$#@!!! So I remove the batteries, clean it out and get it operational again. Back on the 4-wheeler and what do I feel?? Some type of liquid falling on me.... #@%&%$#@!!! Luckily I'm about a 1/4 mile from the cabin so I throw my steed in gear and high tail it to get on the porch right as the downpour starts. I pretty much like a cat...I hate to get wet. The dude singing in the rain isn't me. If you see me out in the rain cover the kids ears because I'll be the one cussing in the rain. So after about 20 minutes the rain stops and I head out to check the rest of the camera. I'm happy to say the rest of the trip was uneventful.

However, it was well worth getting wet to see the really good pics I got last week. Luckily I got some better pics of the triplets, another bigger bear, and a hawk.

I'll start out with the triplets and hopefully get the other posted later this week.

You'll notice in the first couple of pics it looks like mama knows something isn't quite right but she's not sure what it is. Luckily she don't bother the camera.

Thievin' Bears

Couple of pics of the twins and momma at the mountain pond last month. We had an interesting encounter with them Saturday night. Yesterday was the start of our muzzleloader season and a friend of mine killed a nice 7 point buck. We hung him on the hanging pole beside the cabin to let him cool out before we skinned him and processed the meat today. We had just started watching the Alabama/LSU football game when one of us walked out on the porch to get a beer from the cooler. He glanced over at the deer and there was the sow and twins eyeballing the deer. They were probably thinking they at hit the jackpot and dinner was about to be served. To make a long story short after running them off the third time they finally took the hint and gave up on the deer. That is the first time we've ever had a bear try to poach one of our deer.

Be hunting pretty much the rest of the month so I'll be AWOL from blog land.

Triplets

The triplets are getting just as big as the twins. They're still feasting on corn due to us not being able to finish chopping because of the rains we've had. Last year (here) we were done by the last week of September. Note the last pic. The bears ALWAYS have to get up close and personal with the cameras.

Twins Passing Through

Momma and the twin cubs strolling past the camera. Boy, they have really grown the last couple of months.