Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Bear Hunting => Topic started by: WoodHacker on November 06, 2023, 07:44:05 AM

Title: Late season bear food?
Post by: WoodHacker on November 06, 2023, 07:44:05 AM: Here at the end of bear hunting season, what are bears eating in the NE corner of our state?
Mountain ash, high bush cranberry, Oregon grape?
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: LDennis24 on November 06, 2023, 09:17:49 AM: Probably lots of mountain ash and rotten fruit where available. They get drunk on rotten fruit sometimes. I know a place where you can find a bear in the dump pit behind the orchards almost every day and they are usually drunk. Seriously happens alot.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: Sutherland on November 06, 2023, 09:49:02 AM: Oh dang haha, makes sense :tup:
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: hunter399 on November 06, 2023, 10:28:37 AM: Just a guess, elderberry may be a late season food source.
If I was an expert,I'd actually see a bear in season.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: buckfvr on November 06, 2023, 11:45:06 AM: Any gut piles and bait piles......sweet cob, apples, deer corn all of it.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: WoodHacker on November 06, 2023, 12:02:58 PM: Quote from: LDennis24 on November 06, 2023, 09:17:49 AM
They get drunk on rotten fruit sometimes.

I hadn't thought of drunken bears, but I have seen birds drunk on rotting grapes.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: dilleytech on November 07, 2023, 07:08:38 AM: Do you guys have lots of mushrooms this time of year? Bears in southern wa are crushing a lot of mushrooms right now.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: nwwanderer on November 07, 2023, 07:57:41 AM: Omnivores, watch your children
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: Bearhunter308 on November 08, 2023, 09:18:17 AM: One food source that I see evidence of all the time is rotten logs and stumps. Bears will tear into them to get at the bugs inside. As berries go out of season, alternate food sources like this get hit harder.
This is one of my top forms of bear sign that I look for to determine if bears are in an area- stumps that have bark torn off, and often a big hole chewed in the side as the bear goes after termites.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: hunter399 on November 08, 2023, 11:07:02 AM: Quote from: Bearhunter308 on November 08, 2023, 09:18:17 AM
One food source that I see evidence of all the time is rotten logs and stumps. Bears will tear into them to get at the bugs inside. As berries go out of season, alternate food sources like this get hit harder.
This is one of my top forms of bear sign that I look for to determine if bears are in an area- stumps that have bark torn off, and often a big hole chewed in the side as the bear goes after termites.

Stump and logs are good sign.
Only thing with that is it's hard to put a time frame on it in wet weather. Cause I see it all the time,not sure if it was spring ,or yesterday ,unless you can put some fresh tracks,or some other red flags with it. I try to look past the torn up stumps and logs.
Unless I'm seeing other sign.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: hunter399 on November 08, 2023, 11:08:18 AM: Quote from: dilleytech on November 07, 2023, 07:08:38 AM
Do you guys have lots of mushrooms this time of year? Bears in southern wa are crushing a lot of mushrooms right now.
Yup,we do have mushrooms.
I know the deer sure eat them up as well.
In what I call the pine scrub stands
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: tlbradford on November 09, 2023, 01:59:41 PM: Elderberries are the last thing I see get eaten by bears. Seems like they are the brussel sprouts of the bear world.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: ducks4days on November 09, 2023, 03:52:26 PM: Wasp nests are a big food source pretty much year round. You see them torn out of the ground and ripped open once the berries disappear.
Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: highcountry_hunter on November 10, 2023, 06:52:28 AM: Saw one yesterday eating apples off the ground above an old homestead

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Title: Re: Late season bear food?
Post by: HillHound on November 10, 2023, 07:47:51 AM: Still eating snowberries too, at least where the grouse havnt finished them off