I was working at my desk this afternoon, about six feet from the dining room window, about 12 feet beyond that stands a ten foot tall bird feeder.
Or rather, “used to stand” a ten foot bird feeder.
I did hear it, but my back was to it and I just ignored the noise and chalked it up to neighbours on the other side of the hedge.
Kirk, on the other side of a door and upstairs, also heard it. But he turned on the camera app and actually “looked” to see what made the noise. So he got to see the bear bend the ten foot steel pole to the ground and start munching on the suet in the woodpecker’s feeder before coming out of the upstairs office to say “There’s a bear in the yard”.
Kirk and I tend towards very different reactions to bears.
He is cautious and appreciates watching them.
I usually give them about ten seconds and then do something violently noisy to try to send them on their way. My life has been punctuated with periods of throwing things at black bears, since I was about five years old. I have thrown rocks at bears to get them away from my (rather stupid) dog, away from garbage, away from the outhouse at the cabin and, of course, to get them away from me. Growing up, any time I was walking through the bush I always had a rock or a big stick on one hand, ready to throw at a bear. My aim was pretty good back then, I got more than one bear smack in the nose.
No difference here.
Kirk’s reaction was to run upstairs and get his phone to take video (which you can see on his FB is you are friends with him).
My immediate reaction was to yell at it and then find something to throw at it.
I watched for a moment before opening the deck door and bellowing. He started, backed up a bit, then came right back and if the little bugger didn’t basically lie down to finish off the suet.
He must have heard me say to Kirk “I’m going out front to find some rocks and shoot him with the slingshot”…because before I made it out the front door Kirk said he was leaving.
We thought it was late enough to put the suet out….it’s been weeks since I’ve heard anyone of around the neighbourhood seeing a bear.
We were wrong.
I bent the pole back up, but it’s now crooked. Apparently the base was well and solidly seated in the ground, it didn’t pull out even a little bit. The feeders are in the garage for the night now. I guess the woodpeckers will have to go a little longer before they get their suet again.
Not a great photo, but I can look back and say “So this happened today!” , and I was more focused on getting him out of the yard.
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