Bears are in the Nuts and Moose are on the Move

 

This week I’ve been on a mission to find a stand of beech trees in central Massachusetts. I put on many miles hiking before finally finding an area with a dozen or so trees. Only two trees had beech nuts. As hoped, a bear had climbed the tree leaving scratch marks and two small punctures in the bark of the small diameter tree. That provided enough evidence to explain why the tree had only a few nuts left on it branches. There were still a few beech nuts on the ground. Bears are also feeding on hickory nuts and white acorns.

While setting a trail camera this morning, I looked across the beaver pond and there was a cow moose standing in the water browsing. I watched  her for a few minutes hoping a bull would show. No Luck ! Find the cows and the bulls will follow this time of year The next several weeks moose activity will increase with bulls looking for cows.

 

Jim

Setting TC Goals

 

Keeping Track – Every year I set goals for my trail camera work. For 2025, I aimed to find a new area, and after scouting a swamp with a beaver dam and a big boulder in it, I thought it would be great place to try and capture a bear standing on a rock (Goal #2). I set up two trail cameras, which over six months recorded over a thousand videos—only 21  showed bears passing the rock. Most TC triggers were from moving vegetation, so after adjusting for spring growth, I set the cameras to one-minute . This week a TC finally videoed a bear stopped on the boulder. Not quite what I envisioned, but I’ll take it.

Jim

Time To Setup For Moose

 

 Young Bull Pic above is from a trail camera moose set a few years ago,

It was a busy week moving trail cameras around in anticipation of the moose rut activity in Sept./Oct.  Moose activity on my trail cameras this year has been 3X more than any previous year. I’m not quite sure why that is. All I can hope for is 3X more bull activity than any prior year. That would be incredible.

Trail Camera YTD bear activity this year through August was up slightly from last year. Although bear activity was consistent April – August, I didn’t have any real hot spots as in previous years,

With little rain this summer, wetlands have low water. That makes for ideal tracking conditions in soft substrate ( mud / wet sand )  I spent the morning looking for tracks and was hoping to find a bear track in the mud, No luck with that ! I found deer ,raccoon, otter and coyote tracks

The injured bear YouTube video continues to draw interest. A few weeks back II shared the video, it had 40k views. This morning it reached 51k views.

In case you missed it,

Part 1   https://youtu.be/L96iYigKDQg

Part 2   https://youtu.be/1IjdGgA0M4g

 

Jim

 

Well, I guess this is the summer to see bears. While bushwhacking this week along a ridge, I caught movement in the distance, stopping, I watched a bear wandering aimlessly while foraging. It would feed on a variety of plants then investigate rotten logs and stumps looking for insects. I didn’t get to watch it for too long before it picked up my scent and vanished in the blink of an eye. Neat to see for sure. Continuing, I came upon a BIG long deadfall that had been moved by a bear. I attempted to roll the log, and it wasn’t happening. The log was approximately twenty feet  long and the biggest log I have ever found in Massachusetts. About a quarter mile from the log, I found a decent size birch tree that was used as a scent marking tree with the bear leaving a large gouge in the tree. This is only the second hardwood tree that I’ve ever  located in MA. with bear markings. Hope to find more this fall.

https://youtu.be/cf3KEd6Zvvk

Injured Bear - How The Story Ends

 

It was another slow week with TC Activity; it appears wildlife is minimizing movement with the heat. One TC videoed a cow moose passing directly in front of one of the cameras ( cover pic ).

 Just for the heck of it I checked out a new wooded area many miles from any trail camera location I currently have. I wanted to see if there were bears in that area. I did find light bear markings on several trees, and a few torn up stumps. A TC was set on a small, dried stream bed to see if any bears are still  passing through the area.

The injured bear YouTube Video that I shared a month or so ago  has been viewed 40k times. More so than any of my earlier videos, it’s interesting that it sparked that much interest. A second follow up video shares how the story ends, both videos are below. Many mornings in the field went into setting trail cameras last spring in hopes of learning  more about bears. The injured bear story was a bonus,

Part 1   https://youtu.be/L96iYigKDQg

Part 2   https://youtu.be/1IjdGgA0M4g

Jim

Interesting Early Bear Review Observation

Pic above is one of the five sows with two offspring

I have started analyzing my 2025 bear data reviewing sows with offspring and noted, this is the first year ever only videoing sows with two cubs during  April – July. Typically, my trial cameras video all combinations of sows with cubs or yearlings (usually  up to three offspring – four was the exception several years back)  . April videoed many different sow cub / yearling combinations.( listed below). This is most unusual given sow cub / yearling data from 2021 – 2024. My next question was, how many different sows  with two cubs were using the twenty square mile area that I am monitoring with trail cameras? After pulling video grabs from what looked like different sows, I estimate four or five are using the area. Two of the sows are frequent visitors, two sows were occasional visitors, and the fifth sow had passed through once. It is just a fluke  I’m sure ,but an interesting observation.

 

	2025
Sow with one Cub	x
Sow with two Cub	x
Sow with three Cub	0
Sow with four Cub	0
Sow with one Yearling	x
Sow with two Yearlings	x
Sow with three Yearlings	x
Sow with four Yearlings	0

 

Jim

Pictured below are the five sows.

Been A Busy Week In A Blueberry Patch

 

Finally, a break in the weather ! Animal movement over the last week was very slow with the extreme heat . The bear in the cover picture along with a sow with two cubs and two other single bears have spent the last several weeks foraging a six acre  back swamp loaded with blueberries. A morning hike around the swamp yesterday gave up sixteen bear scat piles. It’s been a busy place . Now that blueberries have past, bear activity will slow in this area.

Jim