Our neighborhood Black Bear decided that spring was indeed in the air and arrived at our backyard at 4:30 am this past Tuesday morning, after being incommunicado since last October. He took down the bird feeders and feasted on bird seed, thankfully he spared the pole this time.
We knew that we had been living on borrowed time, so we brought the bird feeders in Tuesday night, as we do all summer and fall, but left the pole up. Here's the video of the fun that Bear had even though he could not believe that we didn't leave out the bird feeders for him to snack on during his Wednesday morning visit.
This video is a compilation of 15 separate video segments that our game camera recorded over the 40 minutes he visited. Near the end, you can hear him going after the compost bin, which luckily was empty. We have subsequently moved that inside the garage along with trash and recycling.
If you don't want to watch the whole thing, make sure you fast forward to about 3:15, where Bear finds one of our dog's toys and plays with it!
The whole thing is both fascinating and unsettling. Apart from the potential destruction, we don't want Bear feeling right at home on our deck. I am vigilant about cleaning the kitchen every night, but I'm afraid he could still pick up food smells.
He returned once more this week, Thursday morning--4:30 am each time--but left as soon as he saw that there was no food to be had. Hopefully he has moved on and will leave us and our neighbors alone for the season.
