Sign of Spring Up North

I came across this video of a bear emerging from his den after hibernating all winter. This was not my impression of how bears emerged from their dens. I thought they came out and were ravenous. It’s more of a process.

Nature is like that. It surprises you. Nature follows a process and while it’s similar year after year it is never exactly the same.

I have a few Nest cameras around my place in Minnesota and I look at them every day. I was hoping (expecting) to see a lot of wildlife moving around our lake in the winter since there are no people around. I thought we’d see a moose, deer, wolves, coyotes scavenging food and trying to survive the winter. We did see a couple of deer but nothing really showed up.

They received 85 inches of snow at our lake place this year. It was bitter cold. Colder than it has been historically.

My cameras were pretty quiet all winter. Just snow, and wind. Now, they are waking up. We save seen a pine martin working the area looking for squirrels, chipmunks, and mice. A Fischer has strolled through a couple of times. A falcon came flying by and landed in a tree next to our place. In the dead of night, a raccoon walked by. The other day, a red fox made an appearance. We see squirrels all the time now. The forest is waking up, although there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Interestingly, the camera next to the lake has been extremely quiet. The action has been away from the lake.

Here is the fox.

We put a still camera with a photo card on a game trail in the woods up there. I am excited to see what came through. It’s deeper in the woods behind the road.

We are hoping to head up in May to open up. But, you never know. Our road might not be drivable in mid-May.

For a different nature experience, here is a Chicago guy giving a tour of the San Joaquin Delta in California.