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Back again. Stoopid neighbor let his yellow lab loose and the dog separated the mom from the cubs, who were up a tree. So of course then she wouldn't leave the area for two hours. That guy is lucky the mama bear didn't rip his dog a new one. Eventually the cubs started to cry (a kind of groaning sound, sort of like a mental patient noise) and the bear came back and claimed them. What a scene.
I took some pictures but it was dusk so you can't see much. I need either a big flash or a much faster telephoto. The cubs were pretty cute, just about the size of big raccoons.
The dog was going nuts on his walk, and when we got to a clearing in the woods there was a little red fox standing there, the first one I've ever seen alive in NJ. Funny thing is, it didn't run away, it just walked to a kind of safe distance and checked us out. I made the kissy-kissy noise you can use to call in weasels, and he came trotting towards us, looking for an injured animal. Eventually ran away. He had cute little black legs and ears, darndest thing I've ever seen.
I'm up in Rockaway, in Morris County. Stoopid bears wrecked a $80 bird feeder the other day. I had it way up in a tree, like 30' with a pulley, and they climbed for it.