Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday was a wonderful (17 hour!) day of scenery and bears, thanks to good friends Cathy and Terry, who so kindly invited me along with them! We even spent some of the time in B.C. (British Columbia), the next province to our west, and were so lucky to see six bears in total, including this Black Bear and her two gorgeous cubs. As you can see, one of these little ones was a Cinnamon Bear, which you don't see very often. Our first Bear was a Black Bear that looked rather like a huge rock in the distance. The second sighting was an adult Cinnamon Bear, after which we saw an adult Black Bear. The final sighting was this beautiful family of Mum with her two cubs. None of the Bears approached cars, hoping for food. They quietly went about their feeding, for the most part without even lifting their eyes from the ground. The usual "thoughtless" people were there, too, getting out of their cars and approaching, so that they could get closer photos. Of course, these cubs were so cute, but all these Bears are wild and wildlife tends to be unpredictable. You really would think that people could keep this in mind and not approach, but stay safely in their cars - and give the animals plenty of space and respect. The weather was so good yesterday, but the sun was very harsh and played havoc with my images. However, I will pick out a few of the "better" ones and eventually post them. Thanks SO much, Cathy and Terry, for such an amazing day out - it was so much fun, and I can't thank you enough for giving me the chance to see (and photograph) these wild animals that were so busy going about their lives. Perhaps I should add that I used full zoom (32x), lol!!! I didn't crop this particular image, but will be cropping some of the others. Another thing I'll add is that I only remember ever seeing one Bear and that must have been 30 or 32 years ago!

This one is to wish everyone out there a very happy Mother's Day. Whether one has children or not, we all have, or have had, a Mother, whether she is still around or not. Being a Mother is the hardest job in the world - ask any man who has taken on this work, whether for a week or for years : ) My own Mother died in 1998, but I still think of her often, and I know I always will - same with my Father. Happy Mother's Day!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear