The Day of the Bear

What a week, month, season, year?
There has been so much happening, which would fit this blog, but unfortunately a life of littles doesn't give much time to pause and reflect, much less sit and type.

But, I did want to share a little story about a visitor we had on Sunday night.

We feed birds. We have 3-4 bird feeders going (depending on damages from squirrels) and 2 suet cakes available year round. They are all situated on double shepherds hooks, similar to this one. This has never been a problem until this week. My husband came back to the bedroom after letting our dog out and said, "The bird feeders are touching the ground."

I quickly went outside and sure enough, both metal hooks were bent down the the ground. The bird feeders, which had been empty at the time (I was sick and not in the mood to fill feeders, but I guess it was Providence) were scattered about and both suet cake cages were ripped open and cleaned out.

Luckily only one feeder was destroyed. We think the bear pulled the hook down with it, since it was on the stronger of the two hooks.

Well, all this to say, oh yeah, we live in black bear country and although we live in a neighborhood, that doesn't stop young bears from being overly curious, especially when someone hangs a hunk of yummy fat on a poll.

We've alerted our neighbors and stopped feeding the birds for the time being. At least until we can be sure the bear isn't prowling around our yard during the night. It was a little scary to think of the wild animals prowling around in our backyard while we sleep, but now I'm just bummed we didn't see him.

What's the wildest thing you've had visit your yard?

I'm thinking I might use this experience to convince my husband we should add some more lights in the backyard. hmm...