Well, I told you what I had on the first 2 cameras, I didn't have time that day to walk up and check the spring camera. A week later I went back to the mountain, there were 3 more trees across the road. At least they were small trees. I'll tell you the wind really hits the west side of the mountain.

Anyway, I carried my grubbin hoe up to the spring, figured I'd scratch out the mudhole a little bit more. I spent about 20 minutes cleaning out the lower puddle, the upper puddle looked good. The water was clear and about 4 inches deep, plenty for game to drink from.

I went to check my camera, the squirrels have just about destroyed the machine. They have holes gnawed into 3 corners, about an inch of the door is complety gone. You can look inside that one hole and see wires and some kind of little circuit board thing. I picked it up and water ran out. I figured, that camera is trash, so I took it off of the tree and brought it home.

You know, that camera is still working. I don't remember how many years it's been in service?

I really didn't have much game on the spring camera, but I do have at least 2 different bear, and one nice buck. Not sure if the buck is an 8 or 9 or 10 point? It's somewhere in the 16 to 18 inch wide range?

But that one bear is a nice one!

I walked back up the other day and replaced the camera, I have it mounted on a different tree.

I'll add more in a little bit.

Sorry, I didn't mean for that little bit to take so long. (my work computer doesn't belong to me, but you'll start to do something, and the screen will just go blank. I'll call about that later today)

Above I was telling you about the big bear that I have on the spring camera. A bear's weight is very hard to guess, especially in the summer. I have several pictures of it. It's long and tall. I've posted pictures from my spring camera before, if you remember there is a log laying across the spring. I've posted pictures of bear, bobcats and coyotes walking on the log.

Anyway, the log is 12 or 14 inches thick. But I have pictures of the biggest bear, out 15 feet or so beyond the log, and the bear's head is just about even with the log.

I sent that picture to one the landowners. Their comment back was: "WOW, it's huge"

Maybe it's the same bear that I was looking for last season?

But I wanted to tell you about 2 other pictures from the spring camera. They are pictures of this biggest bear and a coyote. The bear is pretty much broadside to the camera and the coyote is broadside to the bear. They are within 30 feet of each other, maybe 20 feet?

But in the second picture, the bear has all 4 feet, kind of bunched up, like it's hunkered down. It'll remind you of a cat ready to pounce. The bear is uphill and the coyote is just below.

I've never heard of a bear killing a coyote, but I'd love to know what happened after that picture.

Statewide, West Virginia's 2021 bear harvest was down about 20%, compared to the year before. In this part of the state the DNR shortened our rifle bear season by 3 weeks.

But it isn't long till season starts, then we can all get out there and chase them around again.