...and bears, oh my!

I woke up suddenly at 2 am this morning. Amaya, one of my cats, was sitting on my bedside table looking out the open window and hissing. Then I heard things rattling outside. What the hell? I looked out to see a black bear standing up on his hind legs swatting at my bird feeders, which were swinging wildly. The moon was really bright so he was easy to see. But not so easy to chase away. We finally made enough noise to scare him part way up the hill behind the house, although he just sat there snuffling and grunting and probably considering how much trouble it would be to come back for another try. It gave us enough time to run out and grab the feeders though. And finally he continued up the hill to our neighbors house. Which started their dogs barking. For another hour. What a night!

This morning I found planters on the front porch tipped over, and the garbage, which we leave out on Monday nights for early pickup on Tuesday, strewn all over the driveway. What a mess that was. And the iron pole that held the feeders was bent into a curve. Yikes!

This is probably the same bear that came around last fall, although he's much larger now. Bears power-eat in the fall to get ready for hibernation and I'm sure he's making the rounds. And since he found plenty to eat here last year (and nearly destroyed my feeders in the process), I'm sure my house was on his list. But I've been taking in the feeders every night and putting them back out in the morning so he didn't find anything out front. Now I'll be gathering up the feeders in the back, too. At least until the first snow and I'm certain he's safely tucked away for the winter. Hopefully not too close by :)