10.14.2008

...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 :)

7 comments:

Camilla said...

This is so exciting! I know it's probably a real pain for you, but I would love to look out my window and see a bear. I hear foxes at night, and hedgehogs too, but that's as exciting as it gets where I live. I really am very jealous (and i'm glad my post reminded you to write about this!)

Vicki W said...

Now there's some excitement that I wouldn't want!

Anonymous said...

OMG Janet I would just wet myself if I saw a bear in my back yard. Hopefully, he'll be going to sleep, for the winter, soon....

Robbie said...

Yowsa! That would have scared the heck out of me. I used to live in a rural area of PA when I was a kid. We had to walk 1/2 mile or so to catch the bus for school through a wooded area and running into one of them was one of my biggest fears. Well, that, and the big mean bull that was only separated from me by a thin little electric fence.

Give me a drive by shooting any day! j/k

Kim said...

We have been experiencing similar issues with our feeders, but not sure if it is a bear or deer. Whatever it is, it ate our sunflowers too! Your "watch kitty" deserves a special treat.

Jenny said...

Black bears are something, aren't they? My in-laws had a mama and three cubs in their backyard last year. They were actually playing with the swingset, for goodness sakes!! I feel your pain with the clean up ... as my son would say, "It's those darn bears, Mama!"

Anonymous said...

When I saw the title "..and bears, oh my!", I expected to see a photo of an embroidered bear for the baby quilt. What a surprise!
The last time we went tent camping in PA, we had to put all our food inside the car and take all our trash to the park dumpster each night. I marvel that we slept at all, but we did.
JZ in VA