Napril 2023 Obs/Disco

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

So much for any rain over the next couple days. Dry dry dry 

[DavisStraight]

2 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

You did the one thing that could have triggered a bad reaction by the bear lol. I won’t say your lucky, but they couldn’t care less about you, unless you trigger the predatory response

They're probably super hungry at this time of the year too after hibernating all winter.

[Damage In Tolland]

I realize you’re not supposed to run.. but instincts tell you differently. I just reacted. It’s hard to explain. My mind told me to get out of there fast 

[powderfreak]

6 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

You did the one thing that could have triggered a bad reaction by the bear lol. I won’t say your lucky, but they couldn’t care less about you, unless you trigger the predatory response

I’ve observed enough of them to know they are generally lazy animals that are smart. The eastern black bear is not a “hunter”… they are an opportunist though.  They wander around following their nose for bird feeders, trash, nuts and berries.  They’ll pry car doors open, garages, they’ll climb small trees until they snap just knowing they get to eat the seeds/nuts/berries once it’s on the ground.

100% carrying a gun because of a black bear is only going to increase your chance of a self inflicted gunshot wound while the bear watches you.  Maybe he’ll sniff you after your dead though.

Like the number of YouTube videos of black bears finding hunters in tree stands is staggering. And none of them end badly.  I know they are “scary” animals… it’s like a zoo animal in your backyard… but they literally do not give a shit.  Just watch their demeanor, they almost seem embarrassed when they find you.

 

[powderfreak]

5 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I realize you’re not supposed to run.. but instincts tell you differently. I just reacted. It’s hard to explain. My mind told me to get out of there fast 

Yeah the first encounter is definitely unnerving. Over time it definitely shows you their behavior the more you see them.  I’ll probably be the one mauled for trying to pet it if it walks next to me.

They truly are harmless creatures IMO unless you provoke them. They are like big goofy things that are super smart.

[Damage In Tolland]

8 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah the first encounter is definitely unnerving. Over time it definitely shows you their behavior the more you see them.  I’ll probably be the one mauled for trying to pet it if it walks next to me.

They truly are harmless creatures IMO unless you provoke them. They are like big goofy things that are super smart.

There’s enough stories of maulings and attacks that it makes you worry 

[cleetussnow]

1 hour ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I was between 100-150 yards away I would say ..so maybe that distance was far enough. Had I not seen it as early as I did or if it had been dark.. who knows what might have happened . All I know is when I realized what was happening, instincts told me to go into full sprint mode.. I must have looked over my shoulders 20 times thinking I’d see it running 

I don’t know how I resist the urge to do the same thing and bolt.  I know you are not supposed to do that.    Stand there and make noises and wave arms and make yourself a threat, so the theory goes.  That feels like basically the bear would think thats the bell from the ice cream truck ringing.  
 

one time I saw a bear at night.  I did not really know it until I was probably  fucked. I was walking down a road and  I saw its eyes in my flashlight way down a bit and I thought it was a racoon.  Beady green eyes.  Not a deer.  When I got to the spot the bear was (he left)  I realized the eyes would have been 3 feet off of the ground and then I put the 2 and 2 together and damn near pooped my pants when I realized I miscalculated.  That thing could have 10 feet from me right then!  I did not run because I didn't know if I would be running toward the bear!  I just beamed the light in every direction until I got back to my camp.  Shit scared literally.  Same as you.
 

I feel you, man!  

[cleetussnow]

16 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I realize you’re not supposed to run.. but instincts tell you differently. I just reacted. It’s hard to explain. My mind told me to get out of there fast 

You are still among us.  It worked.

[cleetussnow]

14 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I’ve observed enough of them to know they are generally lazy animals that are smart. The eastern black bear is not a “hunter”… they are an opportunist though.  They wander around following their nose for bird feeders, trash, nuts and berries.  They’ll pry car doors open, garages, they’ll climb small trees until they snap just knowing they get to eat the seeds/nuts/berries once it’s on the ground.

100% carrying a gun because of a black bear is only going to increase your chance of a self inflicted gunshot wound while the bear watches you.  Maybe he’ll sniff you after your dead though.

Like the number of YouTube videos of black bears finding hunters in tree stands is staggering. And none of them end badly.  I know they are “scary” animals… it’s like a zoo animal in your backyard… but they literally do not give a shit.  Just watch their demeanor, they almost seem embarrassed when they find you.

 

Hmmm.  I call BS - this is not always the case.  Last August I was driving in the Catskills with an exchange student from Germany who just got to the US a day or 2 before.  He was talking about how amazed at how much wilderness we have when we all spotted a big ass bear tearing up a hill toward a few deer that were feeding.  I never saw anything like it.  That bear was a killer.  We passed by before the scene ended but I think the bear had closed enough ground to get to one when we saw it unfold.  To me it was behaving. Like a Savanah lion.  
 

The German kid was freaked out.  He never saw a bear in the wild much less a killer bear.  Me neither in my 50 years!  

[powderfreak]

11 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

There’s enough stories of maulings and attacks that it makes you worry 

Only if cubs or food are involved.  Like you said you didn’t know if cubs were involved.

There have been 4 in VT history per fish and game.  Two were elderly ladies who were feeding beers on their decks, then accidentally got between the bear and its escape route and bear knocked them down.

Last year there was a dog that chased cubs up a tree in SVT, woman ran to get the dog, mama bear went after the woman and bit her (non-life threatening injuries).

 

[WxWatcher007]

Didn’t expect to wake up to this. 

[powderfreak]

5 minutes ago, cleetussnow said:

Hmmm.  I call BS - this is not always the case.  Last August I was driving in the Catskills with an exchange student from Germany who just got to the US a day or 2 before.  He was talking about how amazed at how much wilderness we have when we all spotted a big ass bear tearing up a hill toward a few deer that were feeding.  I never saw anything like it.  That bear was a killer.  We passed by before the scene ended but I think the bear had closed enough ground to get to one when we saw it unfold.  To me it was behaving. Like a Savanah lion.  
 

The German kid was freaked out.  He never saw a bear in the wild much less a killer bear.  Me neither in my 50 years!  

Where were the cubs?  On the other side?  I’ve seen bears close huge distances across ski trails in short order if cubs are on the other side.  We had a work truck going up a road, knew of active bear den… mom was two ski trails over… truck got between mom and cubs and Mom was over there faster than a deer can run.

To me it’s always interesting when someone who sees bears regularly, in my yard, on my porch, on the mountain, etc is not concerned and has numerous encounters a year… but someone sees a bear running from a car and they are natural born killers?

I get the hesitation, they are huge animals.

This guy in the backyard last summer had to be 500 pounds.  His killer instincts had him sit down when he saw me, shy and unsure how to pass.

This smaller guy but still probably 300 pounds was scared shitless when he saw me on the back porch and ran to hide under some evergreens.

[cleetussnow]

24 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Where were the cubs?  On the other side?  I’ve seen bears close huge distances across ski trails in short order if cubs are on the other side.  We had a work truck going up a road, knew of active bear den… mom was two ski trails over… truck got between mom and cubs and Mom was over there faster than a deer can run.

To me it’s always interesting when someone who sees bears regularly, in my yard, on my porch, on the mountain, etc is not concerned and has numerous encounters a year… but someone sees a bear running from a car and they are natural born killers?

I get the hesitation, they are huge animals.

This guy in the backyard last summer had to be 500 pounds.  His killer instincts had him sit down when he saw me, shy and unsure how to pass.

This smaller guy but still probably 300 pounds was scared shitless when he saw me on the back porch and ran to hide under some evergreens.

I have seen plenty of bears including grizzlys in Wyoming.  The scene was clear to me!  The bear was running down the deer.

Adding that one of the 2 boys might have caught some of the action in their phones.  I will try to track it down.

[HoarfrostHubb]

1 hour ago, Damage In Tolland said:

There’s enough stories of maulings and attacks that it makes you worry 

Super super rare.  More likely to have a random tree branch break off and clunk you in the head than a bear attack

[HoarfrostHubb]

My wife saw a momma bear and three cubs last summer near our pool in the backyard.  That family of bears were sorta celebrities in our town for a while. People kept seeing them all over unless there were multiple triplets 

[HoarfrostHubb]

And then a few weeks later on July 4th this guy went through our front yard.  
 

Wild Kingdom here at times 

 

[Typhoon Tip]

Somewhere around 4 years ago I was riding the Nashua River Bike Trail, a regular haunt workout option to me - seeing as the trail starts here in the center of town and is close to mi casa.

It's a 12.5 mile kick out to the end, which starts a 1/2 mil from my driveway, and ends in Nashua, NH. Closer to path entry points along the way, there is more traffic ranging from an occasional young mother with a toddler in carriage, to runners, to those in cycling gear. 

But once you get a couple miles between points, there are chances to be alone. It was along one of these bucolic voids, where the path escapes much civility and cuts under forest groves and passes open wild flowered fields, whence I came upon my own startling encounter.

It's interestingly wild up there.  I had been riding that path for years and tend to know the curves and physical setting girding the path on either side.  I've seen land tortoises big enough to mistake them a field boulders, to snappers with 20" carapaces that posture as being ready to bite as you give them a wide birth.  A bob cat may bound away, and once a (est) 7', 12-point buck Moose stood there dumbfounded staring at me, like as if to say, 'what the f are you doing,' while I was trying to shew its 1200 lbs of mass off the path so I could continue along my workout.  

Anyway, I came around an all-too familiar bend, and in that instant just before thoughts become internal words, there was confusion at a giant black blob that was never there before.  I was going back and forth, but I think there were options for giant rocks in there some where, until my brain immediately connected that it was a bear ... before I even formulated holy shit in my head. I clamp the breaks and tires locked. The skidding sound of the tires draws the bear's attention. It was still perhaps 40 meters ahead of me, with its giant head and beading eyes locked on me.  It leaped across the path ... I remember when it was in mid leap, fronts and backs extended, it was roughly the same size as the path width it shadowed beneath.  It had zero interest in getting to know me any more than that encounter.  Within a flash it had loped its way deeper into the grove along the other side of the path. 

I gathered m composure and continued along the way.. and not more than a 1/2 mile later ... so pretty much right away by bike-time, there was a young mother with stroller.  I warned her, and she did an about face and start moving smartly the other direction..  I mean...this bear was huge, but... hugely terrified -so it seemed.  Timid to the timid. Yet later, when describing the encounter to the game warden, who actually called me to ask questions ... I was told that was the sire ( probably..) they were looking for.  Because, there were several moms with cubs in region, and unlike the sire, the mothers do not f* around and will not act so timid if you startle them and they have cubs with them at the time.  I was told based upon my description that it was probably in the area of a 450 to 500 lber

     

[CT Rain]

3 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

I was between 100-150 yards away I would say ..so maybe that distance was far enough. Had I not seen it as early as I did or if it had been dark.. who knows what might have happened . All I know is when I realized what was happening, instincts told me to go into full sprint mode.. I must have looked over my shoulders 20 times thinking I’d see it running 

There are a lot here WOR. I see one every few months. Almost never bother people - just looking for food in trash cans. 

[CT Rain]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah the first encounter is definitely unnerving. Over time it definitely shows you their behavior the more you see them.  I’ll probably be the one mauled for trying to pet it if it walks next to me.

They truly are harmless creatures IMO unless you provoke them. They are like big goofy things that are super smart.

Yeah they're all over the place here. They always seem pretty spooked when they come across a human. 

[Whineminster]

3 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

I know grizzly bears can easily outpace even the fastest runners.  I doubt our black bears get that fast but they can move quickly.  
 

In Massachusetts, black bear populations have increased by 8% per year since the 1970s.  There are now over 4500 in the state 

Best advice is to find a bear tree they say

[HIPPYVALLEY]

1 hour ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Super super rare.  More likely to have a random tree branch break off and clunk you in the head than a bear attack

Yeah there has not been a fatal attack in New England since the 19th century.

I’ve been lucky enough over the course of my adult life to have experienced many bear encounters.

I’ve had multiple experiences coming upon multiple bears. The only time I was really scared was having three cubs march past me.  Fortunately they were heading towards Mom not away from.  

[Typhoon Tip]

Yeah...this warm burst now has to relay down stream.  hmm  

...I was afraid of this, frankly, that which has not yet formally manifested, but we'll see.  It may be out there.  It's the 'rebound hemisphere effect' of now needing to dump all that surplus heat, it gets captured by the mid and upper levels while it is ejected down stream off the continent.

There is a -NAO correlation ( time lagged ) when these warm masses of atmosphere end up terminating in the higher latitudes.  It's a spring thing, because the flow still has structure - albeit in the process of weakening.  The Rosby waves and the general large synoptic scaffolding, will respond to massive dosing of heat at higher latitudes.  Such that if the Pacific sends a transitive wave function ( complex - it's like 'implied' teleconnection) signal that situates a constructive interference, blocks are prone to happening. 

The consequence ( so to speak ...) of these synoptic heat bursts in Feb -Aprils, then steals a chunk of mid spring back after the party's over.  And if we think it means a late blue bomb, or even a last gasp an winter?  No.  That is seldom the case.  The vast majority of times it ends up just causing 10 days of 'rhea or just annoying CAA with 38 F nights and windy 63 F days that compete with sun going in and out of cloud - the kind of weather that you can't really complain about, yet is aggravatingly belaying the true warm season... That may be worse psychology at times lol.  

While 'preemptively commiserating' ... there is a shot at some warmth next week.  The operational runs have been off and on trying to push a warm boundary back trough on Thursday...   

[ineedsnow]

5 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Just saw a massive bear on my run. I was coming around a corner / bend in the road at about mile 3 and it was just getting light out. At first I thought it was a car parked . As I got a little closer I could see it moving and then it saw me and changed direction and started coming back towards me. I have never , ever run as fast as I did . I literally turned Ethiopian. I cannot describe the feeling of fear I had . I just kept looking over my shoulder and running. He must have stopped because I never saw him again . I don’t know if they would attack someone just out running or not, but my God.. I am still freaked out. 

 

[ineedsnow]

[tamarack]

5 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

I know grizzly bears can easily outpace even the fastest runners.  I doubt our black bears get that fast but they can move quickly.  
 

In Massachusetts, black bear populations have increased by 8% per year since the 1970s.  There are now over 4500 in the state 

I've read that black bears can reach 30 mph.   Over 30,000 of the critters in Maine, possibly the most in the lower 48, and even with very liberal regs (including use of bait) the numbers are climbing.  Very few bear-human incidents here, considering how many bruins. 

[CoastalWx]

Well based on what I read, unlike a bear……sounded like Kevin shit in the woods. 

[Typhoon Tip]

Recovered beautifully here in the interior... Lots of 70 to 75s.  Actually better than yesterday in the purer sensible because it's not so bleamin hot

[WxWatcher007]

Looks pretty active to our west.

[tamarack]

My favorite wildlife experience was seeing multiple bears in trees chomping beechnuts.  In late Sept I was scoping a spot for firewood cutters 10 miles west from Allagash Village when I heard rustling and went to sneak mode, hoping to see a moose.  Didn't look up until I was only 15 yards from a tree with a bear and instantly froze.  Soon I saw bear #2 in a tree farther away.  After 10 minutes of watching/listening to breaking branches and beechnuts being crunched, my awkward position led to a slow sitdown.  But not slow enough - bear #1 came down at top speed and I was confident my only danger was being trampled, but the bear headed the opposite way - she wanted OUT and her crashing thru the brush lasted surprisingly long.  There was a 2nd bear in tree #1 which backed down slowly and followed mom, but the bear in tree #2 went south instead of west, climbing onto a maple limb about 15 ft off the ground.  I walked over to that tree but soon left, as that bear was sniffling and whimpering piteously.
It was mom and 2 second-year cubs.  Sow bears in Maine usually breed every 2nd year and will chase off cubs if she's bred and approaching hibernation.  I wondered if she used the incident to make the break from the kids.

[wx2fish]

Ensembles look pretty crappy by late month