A Morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Early Morning Visit to Shenandoah National Park


Sugar Hollow as seen from Skyline Drive. You can see Charlottesville's reservoir in the distance.

A trip to the mountains was way overdue. It doesn't help that fellow blogger Lynn Mitchell [click to read] was describing her latest journey to Shenandoah in delicious detail. I had a full day of work Saturday so I arose early and decided to get up to the mountains in the wee hours of the morning.

Deer were everywhere as I drove to one of my favorite secret places. I saw a wild turkey up on a dark hillside. Bunnies were out everywhere. Rounding a corner of Skyline Drive, I saw the face of a bear peering out from the thick brush. I quietly eased the car onto the grass and set out to get a better look, but the bear saw me and I heard him clattering down a steep riprap embankment.

Later another bear dashed across the drive. I watched with wonder how such a large animal can run like a fine steed through thick brush and uneven terrain. The morning was refreshing and I headed back to work with a refreshed sense of wonder!


I saw two black bears. One was peeking out through thick brush, the other running fast. This photo is from another trip when the bear actually stood still for me!


The only animal I actually photographed this time was this bunny on an overlook wall.

Black Bear in the Back Yard!

Here is a Bear Cub in an Oak Behind My House


Ursus Americanus.

We were in the back yard with my Daughter and her husband when my Son-in-law said: "there goes a bear!" Lucy, my beagle, got very excited and I looked up quickly enough to see the small bear retreat to the forest at the edge of the property.

Dusk was falling rapidly, but I heard a rustling in the oak above me as I walked softly into the woods. There, on a branch, was the bear! He was straddling the branch and raised his head when I approached. He was young enough that there should have been a Mother nearby. Perhaps the recent storm caused him to be separated from her. I wished the little fellow a pleasant rest as he settled down on his branch.

Bears at the Beach!

Ursus Americanus Comeback in Coastal NC


A sign along NC Highway 168 warns of ursine activity.


A black bear in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge goes out foraging...


...and takes a look at us looking at him.

I hadn't seen any bear yet this Summer, so when my daughter and her husband read something about them being spotted in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, a trip there was in order. Rising before dawn, my wife, my daughter and her husband and myself headed over the bridge to Manteo. There were supposed to be alligator in there too, so we were excited to see wildlife!

We turned off US 64 onto a gravel road at the entrance to the preserve. There were no foot trails, it turned out and the only growls (initially) were from my fellow wildlife enthusiasts, who I'd asked not to wear deodorant. We'd be spotting from the car.

We spotted two bears from a great distance. as we crept closer in the car, they disappeared into thick vegetation. The third bear we saw was wandering in an open grassy area, just looking around. We watched him wander along the edge of a slough and browse. He took a look our car and nonchelantly wandered off.

We ended the morning with a walk on the short boardwalk trail through some swampy areas.


No, it's a log. Seen on the boardwalk trail in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

Stalking a Bear in Shenandoah Park

Excitment on an Early Morning Walk in the Woods


The AT at Jarman's Gap.


Black bear walking through the woods.

This morning before work I headed up to Jarman's Gap in Shenandoah National Park for an early morning walk. I soon found myself stalking a bear. I noticed the bear walking across the Skyline Drive at a distance as I approached mile marker 97 and realized I could probably get a good look by walking back on the AT from the gap.

The bear was walking slowly in the forest as I walked as silently as I could, hoping to get a better look. I walked along the trail and listened for the sound of the bear breaking twigs in the forest. All was silent. I decided to backtrack and heard something dropping from a tree, or at least I thought I did.

Walking under a medium sized cherry all was quiet. "Must have been a squirrel," I thought. After I passed under the cherry, rustling from the tree caught my attention. There was the bear! High in the tree. I had just walked right under it!

The bear hastened down the side of the tree away from view and scrambled into the deep woods. That was the last I saw of it.


The bear, who I had just walked right under!


The trail, quiet in the early morning light.


Honeysuckle.

'Bearly' Noticeable...

Mama and Cubs Visit Waynesboro...



It's not every day you see bears in the city but Waynesboro's News Virginian captured the excitement when mamma and her two cubs climbed a tree on King Avenue. Photos by Chase Purdy.

ht/Phil and SWAC Girl

Summer of the Bears

Ursus Americanus in Shenandoah Park


Mother bear crossing the trail.


Baby bear high in a tree.

This Summer I've seen black bears on four different occasions in the wild. I never cease to be put in awe by these magnificent creatures. Returning from work in Charlottesville I stopped to walk a bit on top of the mountain and saw a mother with two cubs. Mother bear "woofed" instructions to the babies and they both climbed trees like acrobats while their mother remained on the ground to protect them from me, the intruder.

Black Bear

A Feeding Bear Shows His Face


Ursus Americanus in Shenandoah National Park.

Ursus Americanus

Black Bears at Big Meadows

Lynn Has Some Great Pictures [click to read] of Black Bears at Big Meadows. I've seen three while hiking in Shenandoah Park this Summer but the only good photo of a bear I got this year was at Maymont Park in Richmond. I have a few 'black blurs in the woods' photos to show for it though.

Maymont Park Bear

Virginia's Largest Mammal


This bear is in an enclosure at Richmond's Maymont Park.

I never used to like zoo exibits of bears. Smokey's cage in the National Zoo was depressing. On the way home from Williamsburg we stopped in Richmond's Maymont Park where two bears live on a tree filled hillside. This one was napping in a tree but stood up briefly, allowing me the opportunity to get this photo.

Bear Etiquette

Living With Black Bears in Virginia

Great Video from Game and Inland Fisheries [click to watch].

More on Snakes and Bears

Its the Wet Spring...


Crotalus Horridus.

SWAC Girl Has Some Thoughts [click to read] on the 'Snakey Spring' we've been having. You always see more of them when it starts to turn warm. They sit out on rocks to 'warm up.' Well, this Spring has been an extended cool rainy season so you are really seeing more 'warm ups' by these cold-blooded reptiles.

Black Rat Snakes have been showing up around the house a lot. My lovely wife does not like snakes so I am frequently seen carrying one away to 'relocate' it. I really don't know how effective 'relocating' snakes is as they seem quite capable of 'unrelocating' themselves. I suspect I've moved some of the same snakes multiple times.

Not that I mind. Black Rat Snakes eat rodents. Thus I consider them allies. Relocation simply saves them from becoming victims of 'friendly fire' i.e. my spouse with a garden tool.


Ursus Americanus.

Black Bear are Active Too [click to read]. Usually they don't bother pets but I suspect domestic goats taste just like the newborn fawns they occasionally eat in the wild.

Black Bears are the wilderness equivilent of a high school cross-country team showing up at the local buffet. They eat everything in sight. Bears are omnivores, meaning they eat everything that isn't nailed down. If you live on the edge of the woods and decide to feed birds, bears love to pull down the feeders and eat the seed in them. Your grill, if you don't burn it off well, becomes another object of interest. We won't even discuss houshold garbage beyond the obvious.

Bears are blessed with one of the finest noses in the animal kingdom. They're way more sensitive than even beagles! If you leave it out, they will find it. Or, consider the poor fellow who left a donut in his construction truck only to find the window broken the next morning. A bear smelled the donut and the rest is history. Game and Inland Fisheries uses Dunk'in Donuts in their pipe trap as bait. It works!

Ursus Americanus

The Black Bear


Ursus Americanus, Black Bear

Of course this photo is from Summer. I've seen tracks in snow in Winter but I've never encountered a bear out in this time of year. Right now the mothers are in their dens nursing cute little bear cubs.