Nature Notes Again

How are you all getting on in the snow? Norfolk was one of the first counties to get the snow which means we've had a very white lookout since Monday night. We're getting a bit fed up of it now, as it means that we're not getting out as much as we'd like to, and things we enjoy keep getting cancelled, but at least we've managed to stay safe and warm.

However, we are working very hard at looking after our feathered friends. We've been keeping the feeders topped up and putting out apples and dried fruit for the bigger birds. We've also been putting out water as the bird bath is frozen over.

Watching all the birds tucking into the food we've provided, gives me hours of fun. One very regular visitor over the last few days, whom I'm always pleased to see, is Woody, our greater spotted woodpecker. He is a great customer as he's happy to eat most things. The fat balls seem to be his favourite at the moment but he also enjoys peanuts and sunflower seeds.

As many of our readers will know all too well, as soon as you put out bird food, especially peanuts, some less welcome visitors quickly arrive on the scene.

We have 2 squirrels who have taken over the tawny owls' nesting box (cheeky!) and they demolish peanuts at an incredible rate. I don't mind too much if it keeps them off the other bird food and I suppose even squirrels have to eat to keep warm this weather.

Talking about keeping warm, we wandered down to our local hostelry in the week and found a rather unusual customer outside ...

Well, we do live in the countryside, so I guess we shouldn't really be surprised, as a pint of beer in a cosy pub has a lot more appeal than a cold, dark and snowy field. Where were his friends though?

Lots of love Chelmer and friends xxx

P.S. our Muscovy friend from last week, didn't like the snow and left us when it arrived; we like to think he has gone to Pensthorpe.

Britain's Favourite Conversation Topic ... again

We hope all our readers having been faring well during the recent icy blast.

One B.U. member who enjoyed last weekend's snow more than most, was Polar from the Midlands branch, who is spending the winter with us.


Polar has adapted well to life off the ice, but when the white stuff falls, and especially when it turns icy, his polar bear genes come to the fore and he is literally in his element.


Along with his hardy friend Russ, he went out last Sunday afternoon to search out some pristine patches of snow to play in and mark with his paw print. The plastic bag his was wearing was not to keep him dry, his fur does that for him, but to give him extra slip when he went body sledging.

Polar played so hard that he got tired and decided to hitch a lift home. Here is is giving his paws up of approval to the snow.


We've all been looking after our feathered friends this week and making sure the bird feeders are well stocked. Our efforts have paid off and Chelmer and Curly were thrilled to sight some more unusual visitors, making their first appearance in our garden yesterday. They sat at the kitchen window with the bird book and binoculars watching ...


... a pair of blackcaps and at least one redpoll. Both species seem to be residing locally, as they're with us, feeding, for several hours each day. It gives us all a special feeling to know we are helping such lovely birds.

But the all important question remains, will today's thaw continue, to allow racing at Fakenham on Friday? We very much hope so.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

P.S. back to Malta next time!

Spot the Difference

Do you remember our very successful course, survival skills for small bears, from last year? It was run for us by instructors Ungi & Jimmy, and took place in Yorkshire in February, although, due to a busy year, wasn't reported on until the end of March.

When February came round again, for the second time, we had the offer of the loan of the lovely cottage that we used as a base last year. We leapt at the chance of going back. For some of us it would provide an opportunity for refresher training, and for others, such as Rosa, who wasn't with us last year, it would provide some vital skills for life training.

We'll start with a flash back to last year and how it was then ...


If you can't remember, you can see from our photo that we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies. We were very lucky, as we also had the snow and ice, which we needed for authentic survival training.

This year it was a little different. We still had the snow - not quite as much as last year - but, not only was it white on the ground, it was white in the sky, as it was quite foggy.

You'll see what we mean when you see our next photo, where we tried, as far as our memories allowed, to re-create last year's shot. This is why we've entitled our post 'spot the difference'.


Our survival training was therefore less of an exercise than last year, and more for real, especially when it came for navigating. We still had great fun though, and relished, even more than last year, returning to that lovely woodburner in the cottage.

More to come.

Lots of love Chelmer, Curly and the small bear posse xxx

Chelmer's Nature Notes 1

Hi readers, Chelmer Bear back again, to once again seize a window of blog opportunity, while George & Yorkie are having a break from their travels.

I enjoyed sharing my hippo experiences with you and hopefully you have begun to appreciate that I am a bit of a nature lover. This gentle side to my character can come as a suprise to people who don't know me too well, as I am known for being rather a dare-devil and wild bear.

I've had a few interesting wildlife encounters this year and I'd like to share some of them with you.

At the start of the year we had some real snow in Norfolk, by that I mean more than the usual sprinkle. I went on patrol round the village to check that all my animal friends were keeping warm and had enough to eat.


My first stop was to an unusual, but not completely rare sight. I'd come across the village alpacas. They looked a little incongruous in the snow, as I tend to associate them with warmer climates. However, I know from the times I've given them a good stroke, that they have incredibly warm fur and I was confident it would keep them warm.

Up the hill were my cattle friends.


Their hair was standing on end to keep them warm and their breath was steaming well. When I got close to them their breath was so warm that it was like being in a sauna. It told me they were handling the cold well, aided by a big pile of hay, and I very glad of the sauna when, seconds after this picture was taken, I fell off my perch into a big, cold and wet snowdrift.

Well satisfied that our village animals were fine I made my way home to help Tommy restock the bird feeders for my feathered friends.

Lots of love Chelmer and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

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Some of the snow drifts made fantastic and very comfortable cushions, so when our instructors backs were turned, we took advantage and had a rest.


If you take a close look you might see something familiar - Yorkie's legs and bottom waving in the air! He assured us that this time it wasn't in order to get a drink, it was because he has so little padding on his bottom, that he had got a frozen behind and he was trying to keep it off the cold snow!

We all had a laugh at the bottom prints we had made in the snow and looking at them gave us a great idea.


We could write in the snow with our trekking poles and do a useful bit of advertising for our blog spot, by etching in our www address. We realise you probably can't read it, but we wrote in big letters and left a big paw print as a signature, in the hope that any other walkers out that day would see what we had written and be tempted to look us up - and hopefully become blog friends for life.

Lots of love

George, Yorkie & Co xxx

It's Seriously Deep

We didn't have to walk too far before we had the snowy countryside all to ourselves, and we could stop looking over our shoulders to see if hungry lambs were approaching and concentrate on our survival skills.

We found that navigating in the snow was quite hard as the path would be covered by snow and quite often we were the first to set paw in the lovely blanket of virgin snow, so there were no footprints to follow.


Here we see George using a bear's intuition for the right path. He could tell us, without resorting to compass or GPS, that we were on the right path, as he had cleverly worked out that where a gate is, the path must be!

Mind you, we soon found that gates are not always a blessing, especially when they attract some deep snow drifts.


This snow wall was many times bigger than us and required us to beg bootlaces from a minder's boot, to use as climbing ropes to get ourselves up.

Lots of love, the B.U. students xxx

Honing Our Survival Skills

After recently blogging about the arrival of spring, with a perverse kind of bearish logic, we now want to wind things back and take you back to last month's wintry snap, when a number of us went on a winter survival skills for small bears course in Yorkshire, and had lots of fun in the snow.


As you can see we timed our course quite well and arrived when there was plenty of snow. It was just as well as the course could have required lots of imagination without the snow. We were lucky though, as not only did we have lots of snow, we had sunshine to go with it. The only problem was that the combination of blue sky and snow, made all the countryside look so stunning that it was tempting just to sit and stare, rather than get on with the business of survival.

We were also very lucky in that we had some wonderful accommodation for our off duty time. The log burner was a special treat as it did get very cold at night.


Learning to light the log burner and keep it burning efficiently, was one of our course lessons. It was good to be able to practise indoors, rather than outside.

More to come

Lots of love, small bears at Bears Unlimited xxx

Fun in the Snow!

Hello Norfolk & Suffolk Branches and all our readers!

What a lovely surprise when we woke up this morning and saw the snow! While our minder was in the shower we sat in the window and gazed out at the unusual sight -


We then decide to go outside and have a snowball fight followed by an attempt to make a giant snowball. Unfortunately it was so sunny that the snow was melting too rapidly so our ball did not get very big. We tried to take a picture of Rupert pushing the snowball but his back was playing up, so being the eldest, we let him sit on top while we had a rest -


We got a bit damp so decided to sit in the sun under the tropical palm, and dry out -


and finished drying off indoors sitting on the radiators. Quite a fun morning! Hope you enjoyed the snow too.

Love from the Midlands Branch. xxxx

Failte Ireland

We're back from a wonderful week of leprechaun spotting and ready to share our adventures and the Irish welcome we received with you. We've been to Northern Ireland and highly recommend it as a place to visit. The welcome is very warm, the scenery is stunning, the people are very friendly (we love the accent) and the Guinness is very, very good.


Our adventure started at Luton airport early in the morning. George & Yorkie being seasoned travellers, who think nothing of flying, took the opportunity to get some kip in the rucksack while we waited in departures for our plane to Belfast. I've only been on a plane once before - remember my sailing adventures in Greece? - so I was too excited to sleep and poked my head out the rucksack so I didn't miss anything.

Our plane was 30 minutes late as it had to be de-iced and cleared of snow before it could leave Belfast International airport to come and get us. This gave us a clue of what the weather would be like when we arrived. We arrived to snow and had to work quite hard to clear a thick layer of snow from our hire car before we could set off for our destination and home for the next week (there was even more snow on the passenger side).


In our next post we'll tell you more about where we went, why I was there, and the wonderful surprise that awaited us on reaching our destination.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx