Yee-HA! A bear! So totally cool youse guys! Can you arrange a viewing when I come up and visit?
It's unlikely that there would be any bears in my part of Missouri, but locals speak of sightings, and I have seen some possible sign of bears. Maybe I'll be as fortunate as you some day.
I almost snorted my coffee with this one, Robin. Great title. You bring back memories of my clever son's quotes.
OK you are right, squirrels do not get respect. Next time I see one, I will give them the courtesy of a "SQUIRREL" shout. I mean, they are world class athletes after all.
Oh my, the next post is it isn't it?? Will there be fireworks? There should be.
I always marvel at the jazzy critters you left coasters have. Squirrels wearing blue coats? I think if I ever get back that way, I might just shout "Squirrel in a Blue Fur Coat".
Bears are not only common here, but often a nuisance. I had a face to face with one a few years back. Biggest Black bear I had ever seen. Thankfully, he/she had other things on their mind than messing with me. There was a momma bear with three cubs floating around this summer. Three cubs is very unusual.
What's odd is my dog will go whacky when a bear is spotted, but she'll run from the wild turkeys. I don't get it.
If I shouted squirrel every time I saw one, I'd get nothing else done!! We have hundreds around here.
If I saw a bear, I doubt I could shout!! I'd faint.
Such a great shot of that cute little guy! We do have lots of squirrels even here in the neighborhood in Seattle, but not the gray ones! As for the bear, I truly would love to see one in the wilderness, just hope when I opened my mouth to yell -- some sound would come out. You guys seem to be enjoying your new location so much and I'm sooooo glad!
Have a great day!
Sylvia
I am so excited for you about the bear sighting! cool!
western grey? now that is rare! really!
Bear! I assume it was a black bear? I don't know species distribution out your way. Surely not a grizzly....
MRMacCrum must've stole my dog, though. Luke barked his idiot head off at a mama bear we met, but he too, runs from wild turkeys!
And, geez, you left coasters, please tell me about your squirrels. You saying that grey squirrels aren't the rule out there?
Yes, a BEAR sighting when walking so innocently IS startling.....happened to us once, and I have NEVER forgotten about it.
I've seen bear a couple of times on this trip. One thing that struck me as interesting is how they are so dark that they appear like negative space in the forest - sort of like silhouette cut-outs. It was a bit startling just from a visual point of view. It's fairly common to see them in northern Ontario up over Lake Superior where I traveled this autumn.
i don't know what i'd do if i saw a bear.
cute squirrel! we have brown ones, around here. outside the yard, except for a few stupid ones.
I saw a black bear once in the wild-Yosemite. I don't know if it really counts as the wild tho as he/she was rummaging around the trash containers
at Curry Village.
I was 12 and on a school field trip.
It rained like crazy our last day and everyone was looking forward to going home!
robin and roger, don't know why i didn't remember this story when you said "bear."
my kids' middle school had a tradition of the graduating 8th grade class going camping -- usually a regional or state park. it was a small school, these things were decided amongst the class. one boy in my son's class was so horrified at the idea of bears that he persuaded the rest of the class to "camp" near [take a deep breath] a waterslide park. my daughter's class made the braver decision to camp at yosemite.
did you follow the "farley" comic strip by phil frank? http://www.sfgate.com/philfrank/ lots of bears in the woods there.
We have a lot of bears here in eastern Ontario this year, and they are ever more aggressive as they seek food to help them last the winter. Sometimes they get way too close! Check this out...
http://susansgonetothebirds.blog...oods-
today.html
Whoa, a bear! I envy you this close encounter--and I love that final paragraph! George does shout Squirrel, though, and he's smarter than me.
Wow! I didn't realize you were in bear country. Now that I think of it, though, I can picture bears catching fish at some of the places you've photographed.
That's an elegant squirrel.
You should hear your brain shout when a shark swims past while you are fishing in waist deep water.
It's deafening for a moment ... and then you realize it was just passing by.
Still, your brain won't let it go ... it stops shouting and starts whispering ... "Shore, shore, shore".
Brains... I tell ya, it's like they've got a mind of their own.
Cute squirrel. Too bad about not being able to snap a shot of the bear. Next time you go walking, hold the camera to the ready, the whole time. Of course, you won't see a bear if you're ready for it. 
I'm laughing, mostly because I've been watching Pixar's "Up" about three times a day, where many of the brain's in the movie (the dog brain's anyway) shout "SQUIRREL!!" on a regular basis, usually in mid sentence.
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