Last week's yard wildlife highlight, the flying squirrel, this week and yesterday afternoon, a black bear cub. Working in the back yard yesterday afternoon tidying up planting some things, a swarm of crows suddenly erupted in an utterly obnoxious disturbing racket which after a few minutes was starting to drive me crazy. I went to the fence line at the edge of the wooded ravine and stream known at "Squibbs Creek" to try and find whatever presumed hawk or owl that the crows had found. They were swarming all over and swooping down low. I tried making some noise and clapping my hands loudly hoping to dislodge whatever the crows had found and make all just fly away and leave me in peace, that all to no avail. The ruckus continued and I continued to clap loudly. Useless. After about ten minutes of this a tiny little black bear cub emerged from the shrubbery and under the crow swarm just below 152nd Ave SE (a few hundred yards south of the Eastgate Elementary School on the corner of SE Newport Way and SE 152nd) and began ambling south along the bank and up the stream/ravine, the crows in hot pursuit. It wasn't just crows in the mob scene but also included Flickers, Steller's Jays, and at least one hummingbird. With a small bear cub running 'loose', I figured momma must be nearby but I never saw nor heard anything to suspect that she was. This makes at least the THIRD bear sighting that I am at least aware of down in this seemingly unlikely ravine in the past 25 years. Last year there was an adult running loose in late summer which invaded the yard presumably through a gate to the ravine which I inadvertently left open, knocked over the heavy base weighted bird feeder and ripped down the suet cake feeder that I had secured firmly (screwed) to the tree trunk 10 feet above the ground which was later found abandoned in the far corner of the yard.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA
Pterodroma AT aol.com