This morning I had a pretty cool vocalization encounter with a bear while checking one of my cameras.
When I got to the camera site I found a few piles of bear crap so I knew I should have some video and as I got closer I could tell it had been eating grass within a few feet of the camera.
After retrieving the SD card I fired up the laptop to see what I got. After viewing the few videos it did take, I put the laptop back in its case and zipped it up. The zipping sound spooked a large critter about 15 yards away. I thought it was a bear due to the loud crashing and brush breaking, but I do get deer on this camera so I couldn’t be sure.
I grabbed my other camera and hunkered down hoping to get a pic or two. After about five minutes of silence I stood up and the mud around me made some slight sucking noises. The critter immediately moved off in a deliberate but quiet manner circling to the down wind side. It had never moved very far from the original spot that I heard it.
I hadn’t put the trail camera back yet so I put it back as quick and as quiet as I can when I heard a twig break and some brush moving 20 yards directly behind me. Again, I hunker down with my camera at the ready but it is so thick I can’t see a thing. After a couple of minutes I blow a couple of times and it starts to vocalize, confirming that it is a bear.
I hunkered back into the brush and waited for 30 minutes without hearing a sound so I left to check another cam.
I head North into this area and then East to the cam. As far as I can tell, the bears typically head South and then East to feed on grass for a few weeks in the spring. This bear crossed my scent path and then started making a ruckus when it heard me in its feeding area.
Here is the type of vocalization that I heard. The photo is mine, but the audio is not.
Black Bear Vocalization
