Bear encounter

Upon arriving at the oasis at daybreak, I walked around to check everything out, as I always do. As I traversed the path that goes around the [dry] dragonfly pond, I startled a bear foraging on acorns from a Chinkapin Oak tree that he had just finished demolishing. The bear departed too fast for me to get a photo. I guess it's good he was afraid of me. Not all bears are. He left plenty of evidence of his visit. For starters, that oak tree is now one-third the height it had been. It doesn't even bother me anymore. That tree has been doomed for years. Bears are continually breaking limbs off it, so all that was really left to do to it was to top it.

The bear will probably return tonight and no telling what it'll do next. It got into the bear-proof ground feeder too, but can only lick a little seed out of it, as far as I can tell. The feeder was still half full.

Also ate a lot of persimmons.

I just hope it leaves the hummingbird feeders alone. I fear it's just a matter of time... Still several Lucifers around, which is lovely. Here's a juvenile male. There's an adult male there too. Wondering if he's hanging around to make sure junior migrates properly.

The oasis is remarkably green considering it's November.

All the Evergreen Sumac are blooming. Maybe they'll make winter berries for the birds.