I'm the same way about getting that picture, Umpa. We've only seen black bears in our yard since moving here, but grizzlies do frequent the area surrounding us. We've been told they'll come around if the food supply isn't good elsewhere. We've had black bears on our deck looking in the house windows. It's pretty freaky, but I love seeing them.
Last September Rick was out of town and I was home and kept hearing ravens. I mean, tons and tons of ravens. I knew there had to be a kill or something nearby. It went on for a few days and I finally couldn't stand it so I went to look. I took bear spray with me, of course. I looked and looked, but couldn't find anything although the ravens were all over and going nuts. I finally gave up and stopped to take a picture of a flower. When I looked up, I realized I was standing less than 5' from a deer kill. I had that sinking feeling of, "You're in the hell of the wrong place!" I booked it out of there and was scanning the area for bears. But the sad reality was I wasn't even thinking about mountain lions. And that's more than likely what killed the deer. It's funny how I'm always looking for those dark splotches of black and brown for bears, but totally forget about the cats.
It's a wild, wild world!
