The bears in the Swannanoa Valley are on the move looking for food anywhere they can find it. Their natural foods are in short supply this year.
About 75-85 percent of bear diet is vegetable matter. They feed on clover, dandelions, chokeberries, pin cherries, wild plums, blueberries, hazelnuts, acorns and whatever else is available in nature. They also enjoy the larvae of ants, bees and hornets. When natural food becomes scarce, bears seek human food scraps and pet foods.
This year many of the oak trees stressed by prolonged heat dropped immature acorns early, meaning in some spots the mainstay of the bear’s fall diet will be in short supply. Also, the wild blueberries were also few and far between this year. Mid-August is the time when bears enjoy the high sugar content of wild berries. The berries make up the soft mast for wild creatures.
Hungry bears are beginning to search from dusk to dawn for food, and any food will do.
Pick up pet food dishes, do not put out bird feeders, and don’t throw left overs and scraps out for wildlife. Bears associate people with food, and will hang out around humans as long as they find food.
Goldfinches are beginning to molt, and the beautiful yellow and black colors are giving way to the more drab ones of fall. As soon as fledglings leave the nest, goldfinches begin to undergo a complete molt which requires a lot of energy and nutrition. They have an insatiable appetite for sunflower seeds.
The goldfinch is often referred to as a wild canary. It isn’t a canary at all. It is a finch. It is the latest nesting songbird in the Valley. It isn’t until the thistle provides down to line the nest, and seeds to eat that the goldfinches nest. Their favorite seed is black oiled sunflower.
The male goldfinch loses his bright yellow summer feathers, and grows winter ones which turn his color into an olive color. The female is a dull yellow and brown all year long. Her feathers become brighter in the summer months.
Sunrise comes later now, and dusk creeps over the mountains earlier in the evening. Since the summer solstice on June 21, we have lost an hour and a half of sunlight already. It is only about a month now until the fall equinox arrives on September 23. On that day, night and day are equal in length. The year has turned noticeably.
Summer steals away as dusk settles in the valley earlier each day. Step outside at dark and listen to the night criers. September nights continue to be noisy, with insects playing their tunes.
Keep out plenty of clean drinking and bathing water for the birds.
May you always hear the whisper of wings.
Photos by Bill Altork
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