While much attention is given to scouting for deer and elk this time of year, it’s also prime time to start looking for bear…or at least, bear sign. In the Pacific Northwest, bear seasons start opening in August, and one of the best signs to look for this time of year are berries.
As you know, no matter what time of year it is, the best way to find a bear is by focusing on food sources, and berries dominate their diet in many habitats starting in late July and extending in to November.
Here’s what we’ve been finding on our early to mid-July scouting missions.
The trailing blackberries are flourishing this summer, some of the best growth in years. In the Cascades they should be ripe by the end of the month. In the Coast Range, we’ve already found several areas where the berries are black and ready to be eaten. These grow low to the ground, and are best found by walking areas or by using a spotting scope from an elevated position. These are one of the first berry sources bears hit, usually before the season.
Black caps are next (not blackberries). About five years ago we had one of the best black cap crops I can remember, and this year looks to be just as good. As long as we don’t get nailed with extremely hot, dry conditions in the next few weeks, black cap production could be outstanding. If we do get extreme heat, the berries could dry-up and be lost. Cross your fingers that doesn’t happen.
Black caps grow on single bushes and these bushes can be spread out from one another. Their broad, rounded leaf structure make them easy to identify, and the berries, themselves, are more rounded than Himalayan blackberries, and smaller. There are many green berries on the vine right now, and some are starting to turn red. They seem to be on track for being ripe on time, usually around the end of the first week in August. Black bears LOVE these berries…we once saw 9 bears in one early August morning, and all were feeding on black caps.
The Himalayan blackberry crop is incredible this year, and with all the moisture we’ve had this spring and early summer, groves of these things are growing at alarming rates (they are an invasive species). The stands on the Coast seem to be a couple weeks ahead of those in the Cascades and in valley floors, which is normal. The size of some of these stands are mind-boggling, some taking up several acres. But the bushes are loaded with berries and will, no doubt, prove to be a key food source for bears in late August, through September.
Salmon berries are also doing well on the Coast, and if you can locate dense patches, these can be good, early season sites to focus efforts on.
Personally, this time of year I spend most of my bear scouting time looking for potential food sources, not bears. If I see a bear, that’s a bonus, as where they are now is not likely where they’ll be a few weeks from now because food sources will have changed. Where bears move to and from this time of year is habitat specific, so the key is knowing what foods are in your hunting area(s) and being there when they are just starting to ripen; that’s when the bears like hitting them most.
Good luck and let us know what you’re finding out there!
The cream contains aciclovir that works to stop treat the virus. One of the most well known is Kamagra. What consumers talk about real viagra for sale or generic viagra for sale? It’s active ingredient is Sildenafil. The definition of sexual dysfunction the persistent impossibility to achieve an erection to the orgasm, exerts an estimated more then twenty millions men in the America alone. Anyone with sexual disorders need professional help. Certain treatments will include couples therapy. Several remedies may add to sex drive difficulties, so its vital to ineract with your physician so that the prescription can be tailored to your needs. Keep reading for a list of medications that may cause soundness problems and what you can do to put an end to potential side effects.