Bearware      blog     About      Archives      NWF

Polar Bears Love Watermelon

October 12th, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


I just had to share 2 photos of a polar bear devouring a watermelon with gusto:

For more photos, click .

Bear hugs, Frankie

istock_000001910778small.jpg

pb_aware_intro.jpgAre You Polar Bear Aware?

pbp-mascot50w.jpgPolar bear Cartoons

If you want to know what you can do to protect polar bears and other endangered species, contact The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

nwfbanner-arcticrefuge.gif

Alaska Bear Trip - Day 1: Airport Travel

October 10th, 2008

DAY1: Airport Travel: The rules have changed drastically for passengers since my last trip. Here are some of the new things I had to do:

I didn’t have to do a strip search but I did feel like I was stripping for them. You now have to take off the following an place into a plastic container which goes through the xray machine:
* the shoes you are wearing,
* ALL outer garments (coats, vests, sweaters),
* purses, fanny-packs, cameras — anything that I was carrying or was strapped to you.
* computers have to be removed from the carrying case. (It did not have to be turned on like it had in years past.)

My Horizon flight left Arcata, CA at a little past noon with a short hop to Redding, CA (20 minutes) then the longer journey to Portland. The flight was fairly comfortable because they were only about two-thirds full. I arrived in Portand about 2:30 PM.

Although the flight was short, I now had a 6-1/2 hour layover in Portland. That was the bad news. The good news was that the airport is fabulous — great shops, food courts, and restrooms. They also had WiFi so you could connect your plug in a computer in the waiting rooms along. I could not get my computer to recognize the WiFi, however, it worked for others. I believe it had to do with the security on my laptop. Anyway, I’m now looking into a WiFi card (memory stick with WiFi locator software) that should work.

Here’s a photo from the airplane:

Immediately after taking this photo I was asked to put the camera away.

The airport also had a room set aside with cubicles with built in tables and electric plugs and the WiFi worked there as well (for SOME people). I was able to take advantage of the space for downloading the photos from my camera to my laptop. I also could have done other non-Internet things, but I was just too darn tired so…. I napped. That’s right, I laid my head down and slept for a couple of hours. Pretty nice! Much easier than trying to sleep in a chair alone.

Alaska Airlines was nice. Here’s a few photos of the 1st plane I was on:

Bear hugs, Frankie

istock_000001910778small.jpg

pb_aware_intro.jpgAre You Polar Bear Aware?

If you want to know what you can do to protect polar bears and other endangered species, contact The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

nwfbanner-arcticrefuge.gif

Contest helps Wildlife S.O.S. Bear Sanctuaries!

October 6th, 2008

Here’s a fun, free and easy way to help save the Dancing Bears of India. You don’t even have to open your wallet! First, here’s a picture of one of the rescued bear cubs on Kartick Satyanarayan’s, WSOS’s director, back:

kartick-with-bear-cub.jpg

The SquidActivists October Challenge for Animals (http://www.squidoo.com/activist-animal-contest) on Squidoo.com has issued a challenge to encourage people to create Squidoo lenses and donate the proceeds to animal charities. Wildlife S.O.S. is one of the featured charities for October and we could really use your help!

Please consider creating a new Squidoo lens (it’s FREE and EASY), about a topic of your choice, and set the payment options to Wildlife S.O.S., or if you already have a lens, consider changing the payment to Wildlife S.O.S. Then you may enter your lens on the challenge site, and have a chance to win fun prizes, while helping our bear sanctuaries and the other animals Wildlife S.O.S. saves.

Any lens that donates any percentage to one of the featured animal organizations is eligible to win a prize.

To join the fun, click The SquidActivists October Challenge for Animals.

Thanks in advance for your help! Every little bit helps!

Bear hugs, Frankie

cubpaw-hand.jpg

Alaska Bear Trip - Day 1: Setting Out

October 2nd, 2008

Day 1: Setting Out: I left Fort Bragg (CA) at 6:00 A.M. for a 3-1/2 hour drive to Arcata Airport. It was a beautiful drive surrounded by at least a dozen State forests and wildlife sanctuaries including Avenue of the Giants and Humboldt Redwoods State Park; Grizzly Creek State Park; Headwaters Forest Preserve and the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary.

I will definitely return to visit more of this area. I’d forgotten how beautiful and diverse Northern California is.

Bears Everywhere

Even on the trip up I ran into bears — of the carved kind. Along the roadside in various spots were chainsaw carved bears and other animals. Below is a photo to whet your appetite.

Yes, the bear is as huge as it appears. I’ll have closeups and more chainsawed bears in future posts.

Come back for more of my trip and photos of LIVE polar bears, brown bears (grizzly and Kodiak bears) and black bears taken at the zoo and on my boat trip in Price William Sound.

Bear hugs, Frankie

istock_000001910778small.jpg

pb_aware_intro.jpgAre You Polar Bear Aware?

If you want to know what you can do to protect polar bears and other endangered species, contact The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) at National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

nwfbanner-arcticrefuge.gif