Well, if I believe the hounds this morning something unseen, unheard by me, is driving them all to the edge, soft woofing alerts at the windows with breathy growls, high steady rapid alerting outside, but the thing that has ME on edge is the quiet rumbling growls the soft whining and shaking, the hair coming up on spines, the freezing and stiffness as they scent the air.

They have very clearly shown me where they are scenting and staring, this is in no way random, but I see and hear nothing..

So I am going to take it on faith and trust that something is or has been out there, so what would trigger this, (pic from the net)

and the only answer I can come up with is bear

I have seen this breed of dog react the same way to black bear and even more strongly to polar bear scent and tracks.

Now, i’m certainly not going looking for it, but I am going to keep the farm in a solid lockdown this morning, no free ranging of any of the birds, not sure on the barn, if I should lock it down, if a bear wanted in, it could get in.

I have only seen a black bear once in our neck of the woods in all these years, but other locals have spotted them before so while not common in any way, not totally unheard of either.

What a way to start a day..