confused bears in southcentral Alaska
Contributors to this thread:Bears
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
Bears are confused with our weather here in southcentral Alaska. It was only February 19th and I took a drive yesterday. Saw a black bear out on the hillside about 10 miles south of Anchorage. There is no snow up to about 1500-2000 feet. Farther down on the Kenai penninsula I saw some tufts of green grass sprouting. Also saw pussywillows sprouting.
Guess that's what almost no snow and temps into the MID 40's will
do....confuse the bears.
Weather here is more like late March to mid April right now!!
Photo in link is at Girdwood Alaska.
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
This is in Turnagain Pass at 1000 feet elevation. Usually 6-12 feet of snow here at this time of year!
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
Turnagain Pass.1000 feet elevation.
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
Near the Hope cutoff....Kenai mountains. Snow line 2000 feet, even on the north facing slopes!
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
I wasn't able to get close enough for a photo of the bear I saw!!
From: Mark Watkins
20-Feb-15
Crazy stuff Elmer..thanks for posting!
Mark
From: Fuzzy
20-Feb-15
-10 in Southwest Virginia last night, never got up to 10 above all day yesterday, low 20s today high temp, crazy stuff...
From: B N A A guy
20-Feb-15
Wow, I cant believe how early things look to be there. Good luck this year!!
From: elmer@laptop
20-Feb-15
Gonna be 45 above and rain un Anchorage Saturday!
From: Inshart
22-Feb-15
elmer, going to be fire issues up there due to not enough snow?
Here in north central MN we have about 5 inches on the ground - going to be a very very bad spring if we don't get some more snow. Also, several septic systems are freezing - 22 below this morning.
From: FullCryHounds
22-Feb-15
In our black bear camp, the Bears are usually just starting to come out around May 1. Wonder what it will do to bait sites.
From: Steve H.
23-Feb-15
I can just picture it, Al Gore thumping his chest screaming "look at me now BEATCH"!
From: muskeg
23-Feb-15
This is the 4th very mild winter in a row in SE ... and this one is the mildest ... hardly any snow even on top.
From: Mint
23-Feb-15
Here on Long island we just got another 4 inches of snow on Saturday. It is in the 20's today and it looks like it will be mid-march before things get to normal temps for the year. A huge low pressure system is pushing down all the cold weather from Canada onto us. But we are lucky, Boston had 7 feet on snow in two weeks.
From: muskeg
23-Feb-15
It's been spring like all winter along the whole west coast ...
From: Mike Vines
23-Feb-15
All Gore can Piss Off. This was taken this morning. I'd give just about anything to see double digits ABOVE zero for 24 hrs straight.
From: Mike Vines
23-Feb-15
This was taken last week.
From: cityhunter
23-Feb-15
some good tunes at least
From: Hugh
24-Feb-15
Poured here in Palmer all day yesterday. And was 30 at daybreak, so mosts likely high 30's again today.
From: Ursus a. Horribilis
24-Feb-15
So, how will the unseasonably warm weather in AK effect the Spring bear hunting? I have an interior hunt in June. Will the bears even be interested in bait then with all the vegetation likely green by then?
From: muskeg
24-Feb-15
This will be an early season for sure ... and as things do go green the Bear do change their habits.
In SE that means they leave the beaches & tidal flats (where there is visibility) and go upland where the jungle makes for more difficult hunting.
From: elmer@laptop
25-Feb-15
Over the years where I have hunted around southcentral Alaska, the bears normally get moving real good about may 15th.
We are allowed to put baits out on April 15th and in the warmer/earlier springs we have had baits hit within a week of putting out. But, no matter the year, the busiest action has always started to about may15th. And the action has stayed busy well into the 2nd week of June no matter how early things started.
From: elmer@laptop
25-Feb-15
Temps in Anchorage and onto the Kenai penninsula were in the 40's again and pushing low 50's in some areas over the last 3-4 days. Slight cooling trend coming with highs only supposed to be in the mid 30's for the next 7-10 days.
From: texascowhunter
25-Feb-15
Poor bears... I wonder what is next for them with evolution then!
From: Ace of Spades
26-Feb-15
I think we've had 26 days below zero here in upstate NY, most in February... Send some warm weather our way!
From: Ole Coyote
26-Feb-15
20 below yesterday here in nh looks like 28 above today got four feet of snow on the ground locally here
