| A Black Bear Surprise | June 14, 2020 |
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Since moving to Cooper's Pond in State College, Pennsylvania, come the warm weather toward the end of March or beginning of April, I make it a habit to bring the birdfeeders indoors before nightfall. To do otherwise is to invite a black bear into the neighborhood along with the loss of the feeders.
Nightfall becomes later and later, but that's no problem. Take the feeders in before dark. However, in the end of May, a young black bear broke the habit of nighttime bear visits. The bear came at 8 pm while there was plenty of daylight. Sneaky bear. |
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I wasn't at all aware of the black bear until he (or she) took down the suet feeder, but the tube feeder was high up and presented more of a challenge.
(It had been raining all day, and so the photos are somewhat blurred from taking pictures through a very wet glass sliding door.) The bear couldn't reach the tube feeder from below, so the next attempt involved ascending the tree. (You can see the tube feeder on the left side of the photo.) |
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Climbing didn't work, so I got to watch how a bear descends from a tree: backward. |
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"The ground has to be nearby." |
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Before the black bear made any other attempts, a noise next door surprised him (or her), and the young bear ran away. |
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I now take in all the feeders well before 8 pm. The photo op was great, but feeders can be pricey to replace.
Photo note: I used a Pentax K-3, with the Pentax-FA SMC 50mm lens, on May 28, 2020, for these photos. |