Swineherding with Sasquatch

The family joined me on my chore hike around the property this "morning". We stumbled upon two really interesting critters.

*Identified and described by Grok.

The first was "a Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae), a flashy longhorn beetle that’s basically wearing a wasp costume."

"That bold black-and-yellow zigzag pattern (especially the “W” across the wing covers) plus the reddish legs and extra-long antennae is its signature look. It’s a classic example of Batesian mimicry—pretending to be a stinging wasp so birds and other predators give it a wide berth. Adults are out and about in late summer and early fall, which is exactly when you snapped this photo. They love hanging out on flowers (goldenrod is a favorite) to sip pollen, but they don’t eat much as adults. Their real job is finding a black locust tree so the female can lay eggs in bark cracks."

"The larvae are the ones…

The dogs and I have been stirring up a flock* of forest chickens every couple of days down in the creek bottom. Grouse season starts tomorrow . . .

And, there has been a big black bear on the property over the last two weeks. Bear season is open until the end of the year. It's time to put a plan together to get the comforter I've been wanting for years.

*This is lame. I call a group of grouse a flock because I refer to them as forest chickens. However, "A group of forest grouse is most commonly called a covey or a pack."

A couple of days ago the dogs and I noticed this poop on the trail below Circle Bluff. I would definitely say it was a bear poop other than the fact that it was a preposterously prodigious pile of poop for the size of bears we have in these hills.

I was sitting on the deck looking at the hills and thinking about this poop. I was trying to talk myself out of this actually being bear poop, so I asked Grok what it was:

"This is black bear scat (Ursus americanus).

The large, loose, irregular pile packed with undigested seeds is classic for a black bear that has been gorging on ripe berries. In late August in the Coast Range around Gales Creek, bears are in hyperphagia (the pre-hibernation feeding frenzy) and eat huge quantities of whatever berries are available—Himalayan blackberry, salal, huckleberries, and others. Their digestive system doesn’t…

Degenerate sex and death for breakfast.