Bears!

Last Saturday I headed up to a local mountain area to do some predator calling with my neighbor, Dan. He's has never been calling before so on the ride there I explained the basics to him. We head to a dry tank area where I have called in a couple of foxes in the past, hoping for some similar action today. I had him sit down near some small oak trees on a the side of a hill overlooking the tank, and I headed to the edge of the tank and snuggled into a small bunch of oaks. I started my calling with a hitch-pitched but raspy distress sound, and about 5 minutes into the stand I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head ever so slightly and to my surprise I spot some black bears - a big mama bear with a nice cinnamon color and two cubs in tow. They begin to circle around me so I keep on eye on them as I continue to call. I start to fidget with my pocket closures, trying to be sly enough to get my camera out but not so quick that I spook the bears off. But they were coming in fast, much faster than I was working to get my camera out! Finally I abandoned the camera idea and continued calling as they closed the distance. When they got to about the 20 foot mark I decided that was close enough and moved around a little to spook her. She locked up and stared right at me, then made a 'Grrrrruph' sound, turned and trotted off - her two cubs following right on mama's heels. I look up at Dan and he is staring right at the bears. I call for a few more minutes, but nothing else shows so I end the stand. I walked over to Dan and he was pretty excited as those were the first bears he has ever seen in the wild, and he got a spectacular view of them!

Because I failed in the camera department, I drew up the experience in MSPaint with my fantastic artistic ability. You'll need to click the picture to enlarge it - oh yeah, I can draw.