Karen Wils photo A black bear at the hummingbird feeder.

Karen Rose Wils

ESCANABA — Humming birds are tiny and colorful as they dart about in the warm summer breeze.

Humming bears are big and mostly black as they lumber about the woodlands in search of food.

Both very much have a sweet tooth.

Sometimes they even dine at the same restaurants. Humming birds weigh about three grams. It is the smallest bird in Michigan. Humming bears can weigh more than four hundred pounds. They are one of the largest wild mammals in Michigan.

Humming birds have specially designed long bill and tongue to probe flowers and drink the sweet nectar. A red bird feeder with a mix of sugar and water will also feed hungry hummingbirds.

Humming bears have a specialty nose too. Its nose can smell a hundred times greater than a human nose. The American black bear has a big nose. He can smell a hummingbird feeder with two tablespoons of sugar in it from nearly a mile away.

Mr. Bear needs to use his nose to locate lots of food because he must store up enough fat to survive through the winter. When you sleep for almost five months out of the year, it’s very important to eat up when you’re awake.

Summer is bear time all over the U.P. This big native creature has been an important part of the Northwoods landscape for thousands of years. The meat, the fur and hide and, most importantly, the grease of this animal were necessities for Native Peoples and pioneers.

The bear, like us, is an omnivore. He thrives by eating plants and meat. Humming bears will eat ants, snails, crayfish, frogs, mushrooms, apples, plums, choke cherries, blueberries, raspberries, acorns, blackberries and almost anything left in a trash can. They say bears will eat fish too, but I have never witnessed it.

Because of bears, Yoopers are always to keep their homes, camps and campgrounds very neat and tidy with nothing left out to attract bears.

Even dog food and bird food are put away in the springtime when the newly awakened bears are hungry.

In the last decade, bear numbers have been on the rise. The winters of very little snowfall and cold temperatures have changed hibernation habits some.

Some folks still enjoy hunting bears with dogs. This is a very effective and selective way to manage the population. Hunters and hounds can trail and tree several bears but only a few large ones are taken. Other hunters’ bait with food and wait many hours and may or may not see a harvestable bear.

But most humming bears stay well hidden and are mostly nocturnal. They can smell people and avoid us like the plague.

Most of the time all you ever see of the bear is his paw prints in the mud.

At our camp, I enjoy watching the hummingbirds and whenever the feeder is knocked down, I blame the darn raccoons.

It took a trail camera to snap a picture of my humming bear.