Yesterday morning I noticed out the kitchen window that the rod that holds up the birdfeeder on the porch was bent down and the feeder was not hanging. I thought those darned blue jays finally knocked it down.
I went outside as I was leaving for work and took a closer look. The bird feeder was GONE. So I looked around the yard and noticed that the long bird feeder on the hook at the edge of the yard wasn't hanging either. As I crossed the yard, I saw the top of my good bird feeder from the porch in the middle of the yard (it shouldn’t come off at all). And the cheap birdfeeder was gone too. I took a step closer and looked into the edge of the woods. The cheap birdfeeder was empty and broken to pieces. (Yes, I was beginning to think I was looking at a crime scene!!)
The house style feeder on the hook was also broken at the bottom and the seed had come out onto the ground. I turned around and went back to the porch…..you could see these long muddy marks on the porch post…….my flowers were knocked over……..and I realized that this was NOT the behavior of a raccoon…….
It was the behavior of a BEAR!!!!!!!! This was confirmed when I arrived at work and described the scene to Shane (a co-worker). He also said that bears are not nocturnal animals. Chances are it happened in daylight…possibly this morning!
I’m bummed that my good bird feeder may be destroyed (I didn’t go into the woods to find out!!) but I do wish I had seen the bear!
(above is the story as I told it to Christie in an e-mail yesterday. When I got home last night I shared my story with Mike. He went and picked up the broken birdfeeder and searched around for the "good feeder". When he found it, you could tell that the bear had quite a time trying to get into it! Yet, it was worth the money Mike paid for it. I cleaned it up because it can still be used! After the bear goes into hibernation, of course!)
And I thought the grackles were bad.............
4 comments:
Wow, that's pretty exciting! I'm glad the bear wasn't around while you were out there looking around! He may have been hungry still!
haha it makes me think of with out a paddle when the little red head gets carried away by the big bear and he has to eat a dead animal so the bear won't get mad. Careful aunt kathy, you could be the next person the bear picks up and drags into the woods to get you ready for hibernation season with him!
Hey, just a bit of advice from the animal folks...
If the bear appears and shows signs of attacking, then try to scare it. Black bears are different than grizzlies, and the article I just read while researching grizzly bears, said to try to appear bigger and meaner then them. If however it is a grizzly, you can roll over and play dead. Oh, and if you think you want to climb a tree to get away, you need to be able to climb more than 4 meters, 'cause black bears can climb pretty good. I don't even think our monkey boy can out climb them. :)
The best advice, I am afraid to say, is to put away your feeders. It would be your choice, of course, but that is what we hear down here. :(
Other than that, I think it is pretty cool, and pretty scarey. I know what it is like to have a predator in your yard. It was only a few weeks ago that we last saw a coyote in the back driveway. It was leaving our yard. YIKES!
Great advice Poopsie! I put my feeders away-or should I say I threw them away. A couple were beyond repair. I'm told I can safely put them back out when the bears go into hibernation but to expect their possible return in the spring. OYE!
Now, a coyote would freak me out!
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