The first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere is Monday, September 22. This year’s autumnal equinox will occur at 2:19 pm Eastern Daylight Time.
Thank you to our neighborhood volunteers for giving their time and efforts to prepare our community for the coming season.
SEPTEMBER AT A GLANCE:
In the cooler days of September, most bears are very focused on finding as much food and gaining as much weight as possible. When the eating is good, a bear can put on two to three pounds a day. By hibernation time many bears will have added about 4 inches of fat and gained between 20% and 50% of their summer body weight.
The quest for calories keeps bears active and foraging up to 20 hours a day. This annual feeding frenzy called hyperphagia is driven by bears’ ticking biological clocks counting down to hibernation, when most bears in colder climates retire for the winter and live off the fat they’re working so hard now to accumulate. Bears also need much more water now, up to two to three gallons a day, in order to process all those calories and eliminate nitrogenous waste.
Bears are biologically driven to gain weight in the fall even if they live in warmer climates where many bears don’t really hibernate, just take it easier and nap a lot. Bears that rely on dependable year-round human food sources often don’t hibernate either. But they still eat as if they’re going to.
September brings a bonanza of nuts (hard mast), including acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts and chinquapins, black walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, pecans and pine nuts. There are more than 60 species of oak trees in North America, and every one of them produces edible acorns. Hazelnuts are also a highly prized September mast crop for bears…. but bears are hard pressed to beat the red squirrels to the bounty.
Bears begin climbing into beech trees in early September and make themselves comfortable so they can sit and eat. Bears also “nest” in bur oak trees and eat acorns all day. Bears hate to leave any food behind and will sometimes break branches in their quest for both calories and the perfect perch. These “bear nests” are easy to spot from the ground.
“Almost pregnant” female bears that mated in early summer can gain up to 50% of their weight if the eating is good; the more weight they gain, the better the chances their cubs will thrive. These soon-to-be moms industriously search for the perfect birthing den that will also provide a safe sanctuary in spring and early summer when newborn cubs stick close to home. That’s why they often choose den sites near large “sanctuary trees” that give cubs a place to rest in the shade when mom is out foraging and scoot up if there is danger. In some areas mothers-to-be pick sites near a body of water or a wetland where early spring foods like skunk cabbage grow.
Cubs are now independent enough to wander a distance from mom to nose around, play, feed or just check things out, but they stay close enough so they can quickly retreat if they sense danger or feel threatened.
Remember that bears are moving about many hours a day, so pay attention to your surroundings, and be a good loser if a bear beats you to your berry patch. Check out our fall hiking tips for more.
Thanks for being BearWise and helping keep bears wild.
Where: The Pavillon at Tranquility Park
Time: 5:30 pm
Please bring your favorite appetizer and your beverage of choice.
August 9, 2025
Sumac is one of the best trees for bees and other pollinators because it is native, colonizing, tolerant of many soils as well as drought.
These native plants can be seen on our roadsides with clusters of pink to dark red fruits and compound leaves with brightly colored leaflets.
Sumac fruits will be ready for birds in October.
Its red fall color is beautiful here in Tranquility.
August at a Glance: Bears have many ways to stay cool during hot summer days. By August, most cubs are weaned. Cubs can often survive on their own if they have to. Bears feast on ripening berries and may travel great distances to dependable food sources. Bears decipher complex messages left in the scents of other bears.
Bears don’t have sweat glands and can’t take off their fur coats, so they can’t cool off the way people do when temperatures soar. However, bears do lose much of the dense underfur that helps keep them warm when temperatures drop. Shedding some of that fur lets air circulate while still “shading’ their skin from the sun. They also pant like dogs and dissipate heat through their paws and other areas with little hair.
Bears avoid the hottest parts of the day and often relax in daybeds under a nice shady tree. They will also spread out on their lightly furred bellies and take a cool mud bath or chill out in a wetland. Bears will sometimes seek shelter from the sun on a cool, shady stone patio, under decks and porches, or in crawl spaces.
Bears are excellent swimmers and paddle around in lakes and sit in streams to cool off. They’ve also been known to plop down in the kiddie pool or koi pond, run through the sprinklers and do laps in the pool.
Most cubs are weaned during August, giving mom a chance to focus on fattening up herself along with her cubs. Cubs may continue to nurse if they’re permitted to, but it’s time for them to start feeding themselves. Cubs still stick together and follow mom around learning the finer points of foraging. These lessons will be very important next year when they go out on their own.
Cubs born this year typically weigh between 25 and 40 pounds in August and already look quite a bit different from the big-eared, blue-eyed balls of fur and claws that emerged from the den in spring. While most cubs of the year will stay with their moms until next spring, once they are weaned cubs are often capable of surviving on their own if they have to.
Berries, called soft mast, are a very important food source for bears. Blueberries, raspberries, wild plums, blackberries, pin cherry, chokecherry, crab apples, serviceberries, viburnum, paw paws and other seasonal berries ripen in July and August and persist into September in some parts of the country.
Berries are small and grow in dispersed patches; a pound of most wild berries has fewer than 300 calories. Bears are big and trying to get bigger, so they need to find and eat as many berries as possible. Once a bear finds a good patch it will spend many hours patiently stripping off the berries with its tongue and lips.
In August and September many bears travel extensively throughout and even beyond their home ranges searching for those elusive bumper crops of berries and nuts. How do they know where to go? Some head to reliable sources they’ve used in the past. Some bears rely on other bears to lead the way. A bear’s nose is so sensitive it can decode a lot of information just by sniffing claw marks, tracks and scat. Those scents left behind can help them decide if they want to follow along.
You might think that a bear would naturally go exploring if it was slim pickings at home, but bears seem to have an ability to figure out if a food failure is local or widespread. If it’s local, they will leave. If it was a widespread regional failure, like a late frost or an insect infestation or natural disaster that wiped out berry crops, many bears will actually stick closer to home and explore all their options. That’s because traveling long distances and burning lots of calories for no reward isn’t a good investment of bear energy. So remember to be extra-vigilant if your area has been impacted.
Swimming bear photo courtesy of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Courtesy of BearWise® | http://www.BearWise.org
Beech Tree Drive
August 6, 2023
Tranquility at Carters Lake Owners Association 
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