TRAVEL STORY: BEAR IN THE YARD !

2011/01/01

TRAVEL STORY: BEAR IN THE YARD !

On December 28, 2010 we looked out the window of my dad’s house and saw… a bear in the yard! He was just outside the house, only 12 ft from us. He was nosing around the ground under the bird feeder.

At least we knew who this bear was. We’d seen him 2 days earlier wandering around the corn fields behind my dad’s house, much to our astonishment. We’d called the nearby state park rangers who’d informed us that bear had showed up at our neighbor’s farm and climbed into an open truck trailer. The kindly neighbors had fed him dog food and a deer carcass. Some rangers had visited, determined that bear suffered from mange, knocked him out and given him injections for the disease. Today we could clearly see bear’s mangy face. He also looked exceedingly thin and lethargic. Poor guy.

bear’s mangy face

Apparently the rangers had also tagged him- metal clips were clearly visible on each ear. Bear had stayed in the trailer for 2 weeks and then been released right there on the property. I was surprised that they’d released him in a residential area. Why not take him to one of several nearby state parks? In any event, today we weren’t overly astonished to see him since we were aware of his presence in the area.

bear spying the bird feeder

After nosing around the ground a while bear sat up on his hind legs and looked straight up. He spied the bird feeder directly above. Next thing we knew, he walked over to the tree trunk, stood up against it and… climbed right on up. He moved up quickly and with ease. Within moments he was up the tree climbing out onto the limb…

Surprisingly, the tree limb held his weight! Bear went way out on the limb, looked down at the bird feeder, then reached down and pulled it up with his paws.

He promptly stuck his nose inside the feeder and began eating seeds. Sadly for him, when he tilted the feeder, most of the seeds fell to the ground. He watched them fall ground before continuing to eat the seeds remaining in the feeder.

bear looking down at bird feeder

Eventually he must’ve finished the seeds because he dropped the feeder, returned to the tree trunk and climbed back down.

bear climbing down the tree

He set about eating the fallen seeds. He stayed a long time slowly licking and eating. He even got down on all four paws, folding his front paws in cat style, while he ate. May as well get comfy.

bear scrounging bird seeds

I threw out a half bag of bird seed which landed about six feet from bear. He looked over at it several times but never did investigate. Dag, he missed a much bigger meal which was a pity. Bear looked pretty thin for winter. He stayed so long licking and eating seeds that my dad eventually went outside and scared him off- simply by yelling at him. Rangers had given that advice when my dad had called after bear’s arrival.

It was certainly an unusual and exciting end-of -year experience. My dad has been living in that house for over 30 years but had never before had a bear visit his yard. I regarded it as a lucky end of year charm.

Reporting from the road, Lash