Our first family road-trip in the Eastern US. The only destination we had was Fort Lauderdale, and we had a month to get there and back. Enough planning, let's go! First stop was the Shenandoah valley, and the Shenandoah National Park. The camp-site was very wooded, and first new bird for the trip was a pair of
Carolina Chickadee around the camp. Also hanging around the camp for the entire three days were a pair of barely fledged
Eastern Screech Owls which found us fascinating, and visited us unfailingly at dawn and dusk.
Very exciting moments were the two sightings of
Black Bear we had in the park. The first was very close to the road, the second was only half an hour later, a mother with 3 cubs. None of them hung around for very long, and like an idiot I had my camera in the back of the car so it's cell phone images only I'm afraid, but still, Bears!
Eastern Screech Owl
Our first ever
Black Bear!
Closely followed by our next 4, a mother and 3 cubs!
A pair of
Northern Water Snakes were basking in the sunlight on top of a low bush on one of our hikes. They didn't seem to want to move, and let us get close enough for some good pictures.
So now the entire family has seen a bear!
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