John Wiley
Looking at snapshots from a recent flight, John Wiley wondered about the name of the next canyon East below the Arroyo Burro Trail (next canyon West from San Roque Creek). Unless someone can provide a definitive name, he’s calling it Lipstick Canyon due to the dark shape formed by the shadow of the rock outcrop on the top-right side of the canyon in the above pic.
Then he noticed a dark shape on top of the big boulder down in the creek. Cropped to full resolution, what sort of wildlife does it look like to you?
Do you also see what looks like a tawny color similar-size animal just above and to the right on the same boulder? If you live or hike in that area, have you seen animals like this or signs of their presence?
He also asks if you’d like to see some wildflower pix he likes.
I wanna’ live with the cinnamon bear,
I could be happy the rest of my life with the cinnamon bear.
I’m grinning, and also imagining the aroma of a gourmet cinnamon ring. ;P
The cinnamon bear doesn’t wanna love with you though – check out ‘Nature is Metal’ on Instagram for a few tips on that kind of mentality…
It’s a play on the Neil Young song 😉
I know, and a good one. Check out the natures metal though – see if you’re offended.
No you didn’t. Why else would you think it’s a “mentality.”
And why would I be offended by nature? Nice try baiting though……
I love those videos. Nature IS metal. Don’t mess with it. Stop supporting coal and oil production before nature goes metal on all of us, as it’s already starting to do.
Two Bears? Black and Cinnamon.
Spring courtship? Rivals? The black one is surely a bear, but could the other be a stump washed down in the rains or some other critter (cougar)? Are there “cinnamon” bears that size here? Even one black bear that size so close to a major trail is a bit scary, but I guess they’re much better at going unseen than us (except by air 😉
Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to figure out where the flowers are that we saw in Fig.Mtn. area…
Have a look at Michelle’s Insta and see a couple cinnamon bears. https://www.instagram.com/wildlife.in.sb/
Romance? Juvenile? Somehow I’ve never heard of cinnamon bears.
Thanks Minibeast:)
Black bears are extremely shy by nature. No need to fear them.
As a native Californian it gives me hope that’s a Cinnamon, since it would be my first time hearing of them and my first (very distant) sighting. Wiki sez it’s: “a highly variable color morph” as are non-native humans it seems. “…and a subspecies of the American black bear.” “…they therefore most likely exist alongside the mostly black-colored eastern American black bears present in those regions,” (drum roll please) “and breed with them.” So could be a mate or juvenile offspring?
“So is that the bear on the CA State Flag?” I wondered. Wiki: “in the center of the white field a California grizzly bear upon a grass plat, in the position of walking toward the left…” Whew! I’m spared the chagrin of not knowing a Cinnamon is on my State Flag.
The rock outcropping identified as lipstick is the San Roque Arch aka the Barger Canyon Arch.
https://yankeebarbareno.com/2014/08/21/barger-canyon-arch/
I have seen bear scat and bear prints while hiking on the Arroyo Burro trail but to date have not seen bears.
Thanks Perch, for linking to the Excellent post by Barbareno! I’m glad to know the bears are avoiding us, and that it may be a Cinnamon in the pic and not a brown CA Grizzly like on our flag.
Hmm… Is there any effort for CA Grizzlies to be re-introduced at some point?
What an awesome blog!! Thanks, Perch.
Cool pic! And of course we want to see your wild flower pics. I always love your aerial photos.
Thanks to your encouragement, I’m going to take a few minutes to send Ed a pic of the only dense bloom we spotted on our cruise of the Fig.Mtn. area. It was above the road, so maybe nobody knows about it unless that’s a known spot the ranger would’ve checked on. Tonight or tomorrow I’ll send Ed pix of the vast dense blooms we saw not too much further from SB, that might not take much longer by road. We might make the drive there ourselves this weekend.
It could be the mama and her cinnamon cub that have been gracing my trail cameras for quite some time now. She also has a black cub that may be out of frame in this Edhat post. The area is in the San Roque drainage, so it could be! I’ll post a recent daytime image on my IG @wildlife.in.sb for those that would like to see and compare.
Cool! Thanks Mixik. Guess they probably roam that whole section of the foothills and above. Somehow I’d imagined they stay in that Barger Canyon area of Cieneguitas Ck to San Thomas Ck, since it’s further from people & homes than San Roque. Is there any development there, above the mansions & agro atop the San Marcos Foothills Reserve?
The first wildlife I saw was the starfish at the bottom of the rock the bear is on.
Then I saw the dark dot that is the bear. Great catch, John, how serendipitous.