OT: Wildlife

This is way off topic of anything related to Vegas but it was something cool (at least to me) that I experienced earlier today so I thought I'd post it.

I'm in no man's land....a gas and oil town in northern British Columbia called Fort Nelson.

To get here, I took three flights yesterday from Tampa to Grande Prairie, Alberta and then left this morning for a 7 hour drive due northwest to get here.

The road that goes through here is called the Alaska Highway or Canada Route 97. It starts in Dawsons Creek, BC and presumably goes to Alaska....that's still 600-700 miles from here.

We're on this road for a while...primarily a two lane highway that appears lightly traveled. We see a baby moose on the left hand side of road. We stop, he/she stops, but before we could get cameras and/or phones in place to take a pic, it's gone.

We continue on and are about 20 miles out of For Nelson and my pilot notices something moving ahead on the left hand side of the road. We slow up as we get closer and see this:







The quality of the pics coming off my iPhone aren't the best but you get the drift. There's a black bear laying in the flowers. We look at each other and he continues to just play. Eventually, he gets bored and meanders away.

I know that some of you live in environments where this might not be a rarity but when you're born and raised 25 miles out of NYC, the only wildlife you see is at the zoo.

Thought it was pretty cool and made the two days out of my life that I'll never get back somewhat worth it.

Dan

Very cool, Dan, but I hope you get back to civilization soon.

We've got lots of bears all over BC, Dan - you really don't need to go to Fort Nelson just to see one! Here in southwest BC we also see them all summer long. Here's the view from the family room at my inlaw's place, less than an hour outside of Vancouver. Note the open sliding door & screen so they could get a better photo!!

Thanks for sharing Dan, I live in Flushing NY myself and never get to see this so it is appreciated. This is the sort of picture you should store in your mind and pull out when you are sick of NY smells and noise

Dan,

That is a good photo. Amazing how oblivious he appears to be to his "guests."

And I think it is just as well you didn't get close enough to answer the age-old rhertorical question, "Does a bear $hit in the woods?"

Pretty country, but good luck finding a bottle of Veuve out there!

My back yard in Msassachusetts, which borders state forest.

They walk through whenever ....... day or night.

I've seen them in the morning before work while I was out watering my lawn.
A cub was high up in a tree, and the mother was below in the grass.

I've looked out the kitchen window in the summertime when cooking supper and seen one ambling through.










BTW Dan, Taking all those pictures of bears ........... I didn't know that you were such a "Bruins" fan. LOL


Rick

I don't know about others but if a bear is spotted at my window, I WILL be holding the largest firearm I have when ever I enter or exit. Any spotting of a bear will result in one of 3 things, I shoot the bear and it dies, I shoot the bear and it runs away, or I shoot the bear and it eats me for breakfast.

We have seen bears several times over the years (while driving through national parks) and it is ALWAYS cool. That's neat that you got to see that and got a pic of it.

The only animal we've had around here was yesterday when I looked out our front window and saw this:


I yelled, "turkey" so DonDiego could come see him too...but I think not clarifying which turkey I was talking about confused him (DonDiego) so he just caught the "tail end" as the bird entered the woods. lol.

I think its pretty sad that Fort Nelson appears to have warmer weather than Seattle right now. We're freezing here.