The Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is a terrific area for photographing Black Bears. Each spring the bears emerge from their dens and have developed a predictable routine. They move from grazing on the grasses, to the berry thickets (black berry and blueberry), by summer the wild cherries (choke cherries) have ripened and they climb the trees and strip them of all the cherries that they can reach, next up the acorns are ready and they again head for the trees, gorging on the nuts. Along the way they will eat wild persimmons, grasses and flowers. By late fall they will have put on as much as 3" of body fat.