Thursday, December 13, 2012

Déjà Bear

Remember this old homestead in the Tehachapis, where I set a cam trap last winter?:

old homestead
Old homestead in Tehachapi Mountains

Well, I gave it a reset this late summer, to see if any local critters use it for shade or sleeping.

This time, however, when I went inside to set the cam, I was greeted by two little characters that seemed to think they owned the place.

screech
"Who's there?"

death glare
"What are you doing in our house?"

Ten inches tall and talons that could tear your eyes out. Too cute.

Here's the camera trap inside:

homestead set
Summer reset inside old homestead

As before, the house was surprisingly quiet for the 8 weeks the cam was in place.

Took just 7 photos of 4 species. And one of those introduced.

The door mouse was still around. Guess the 2 screech owls hadn't caught him yet:

mouse
Peromyscus mouse in the house - long tail, likely boylii

A jack hopped through one day, but didn't stay for good photos:

jack
Black-tailed jackrabbit in harsh light

And a cow peeked in:

cow
"Gosh Mabel - I sure don't understand all their fuss about living inside these places"

And then, the Matrix glitched, and the cam trap caught this apparent re-run from last time, including a sniff of the door jam...

bear

bear

Whoa. Déjà bear.

But not quite, huh?

Not as big and doesn't have the white chest patch of the cinnamon bear from last winter:

black bear black bear
Cinnamon black bear that dropped by the homestead set in November 2010

Guess that means this is still the real world.

Neo:  Whoa. Déjà vu.
Trinity:  What did you see?
Neo:  A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
Trinity:  How much like it? Was it the same cat?
Neo:  It might have been. I'm not sure. What is it?
Trinity:  A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.


- from the movie The Matrix

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3 comments:

  1. How close did those owls let you get? Looks like you were right next to them!

    Great pics....

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    Replies
    1. The first one actually scared the crap out of me. He/she was standing on the top of the door as I came in. I turned my head and looked it in the wide-eyed face at 18" away (then it flew up onto that roof beam). The second was standing on an exposed cross-support in the wall, and I was 6 feet away. I had heard that screeches are generally not afraid of people, and these 2 seemed to bear it out.

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  2. Nothing like old cabins to meet good neighbors, but I'm not sure I would want to meet that bear while there in my sleeping bag, charming as s(he) is.

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