Saturday, May 24, 2008

Bear-y interesting :<)

I opened the bedroom curtains this morning, and here's what I saw. The bird feeder holder bent over, and both feeders completely empty. Although there are no tracks, this means a bear visited last night. I'm amazed the dogs didn't bark, but they must have been sound asleep. Tom called our visitor "polite" because he or she didn't do any damage. I had written last month that I was going to take down the feeders, and I did. But then I felt badly because there weren't so many birds right around the house, so I took a chance and put them up again. We did indeed have a lot of visitors; a dozen bluejays came everyday, along with mourning doves, juncos, a rose breasted grosbeak. But now, they'll have to go back into the woods for their summer food, and we won't put up the feeders until fall when those rascally bears have gone to their dens.




This is what we didn't see.

A black bear with her cub. Photograph by Norbert Rosing. More bear information here, if you are interested.
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9 comments:

  1. Yikes! A friend of mine who lived near the Rockies had the same problem. She tried hanging the feeders high out of the bears' reach but they continued to visit the yard to eat the dropped seeds. Even the smallest amount seemed to attract them, so that was the end of her birdfeeders until November.

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  2. Yeesh - I'm so glad we don't have bears in Wales. It's bad enough when Next Door's milking herd find our gate has been left open. I used to write to a lass in Alaska, and she bemoaned the fact that in winter she couldn't go out for a walk because of the snow. In the summer, she could go for a walk, but had to take a gun with her because of the bears!

    Here, we hang our nutnets from the tree branches, but of course, low enough to be easily refilled. Bear-height easily . . .

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  3. Oh, my, you are very lucky indeed! What restraint your visitor showed...very clever to tip the seeds from the feeders instead of smashing them to bits!

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  4. OMG...bears. Now I won't feel like I can complain about our rabbits after seeing this.

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  5. Oh my goodness Nan! I guess I didn't realize you were quite that rural.
    I enjoy seeing my backyard birds, but I'd give up feeding, too -- rather not have bears outside the door!
    Jeanne :)

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  6. I admire bears from afar . . . but don't prefer them too close. I am glad the damage was minimal . . .
    LOVE the lilac photo masthead. I can practically smell them!

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  7. Have you read Maxine Kumin's Seven Caveats in May? I thought of it while reading your post. I can just about smell the lilacs on your header--oh no those are the ones beside me on the table that I smell--the picture is beautiful.

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  8. I too say Yikes! -sigh-

    Mari-Nanci
    'Smilnsigh'

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  9. Goodness, that's more excitement than I need! We only have to cope with the dogs shrieking at the farm cats. If The Bolter saw a bear at the bird feeders she would slink under the sofa and refuse to come out.

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