Close Encounter

Wow!  I've just had a close encounter with a black bear.

This story begins last night when I returned home from my evening out.

No, wait.  This story actually begins earlier this year.  I can't give you a specific time frame but at some point this spring, raccoons came out of winter hibernation.  And one raccoon in particular discovered a treasure trove of food under my bird feeders.

Thus the running battle began.  I would leave the feeders out as long as possible into the evening to let the birds eat.  Then I would bring them in overnight to prevent the raccoon from breaking them.  For its part, the raccoon would arrive earlier and earlier each evening, trying to beat me and gain access to the feeders before I could rescue them.  Shepherd's hooks from which the feeders hang have been bent and then broken.  Peanuts have been stolen.  It was annoying but that raccoon is so darned cute with its black mask that I have difficulty getting angry with it.  I just have to remember to rescue the feeders early enough in the day.

So last night, I was out much longer than I had expected to be.  It was nearly midnight by the time I returned home and the raccoon won.  When I pulled into the driveway, I could see that one of the peanut feeders had been knocked down to the ground.  All the peanuts were gone.

Figuring that the raccoon had had its fill and wouldn't bother the feeders again, and feeling too tired to take the time to bring the feeders in, I went inside, leaving everything hanging on the hooks.  Besides, I was feeling a bit spooked - something was making noise in the distance.  Better to head in to the security of home than to save the feeders from any further raccoon attack.

This morning when I looked out, both peanut feeders as well as the niger tube were gone.  Blaming the raccoon, I began to search the ground to find the missing feeders.  One peanut feeder and the niger tube were easily found but that dratted raccoon had obviously dragged off the second peanut feeder.  I expanded my search to cover a larger area.  A neighbour out for his morning walk joined in the search.  I noticed a flattened patch on the grass where something had rested.  It seemed a bit large for a raccoon but maybe it had brought friends.  A trail down towards the road was visible.

With two of us searching, the feeder remained absent.  Then I came across a pile of poop, scat, feces.  It was a pretty fresh pile.  It was also a very large pile.  It was a bear pile.  Hunh.  Then I noticed that the niger feeder, a metal tube, had tooth-sized indents on either size of it.  More evenly spaced that would occur when the feeder hit the ground, and deeper than any raccoon could do.  Bear!

Makes me wonder about being spooked last night.  Was the bear already in the vicinity?

Well, a little while earlier this evening, I looked out and yes, the raccoon had already knocked down the one remaining peanut feeder.  By the way, it is not only the feeder itself getting dented or broken that irks.  The price of peanuts has skyrocketed thanks to a bad growing season last year.  So it's irritating that this raccoon keep going after the peanuts when the much cheaper sunflower seeds are equally available.

But I digress.  So the raccoon has already started in on the peanuts.  Quickly I put my boots on and head outside.  Despite the fact that the birds are still eating, I'm prepared to bring in all the feeders given the visit by what I now suspect was a bear last night.  I gather up half the feeders and move them inside.  Heading out for the remaining feeders, I see movement across the road.  Large black movement.  Not a dog.  It watched me as I watched it.

This is my closest encounter with a bear.  I've seen others crossing the road as I drive into Orillia, rocks have been turned overnight while I sleep, big black bums have been seen disappearing into the brush on the other side of that large field.  But THIS, this was a bear that was very very close and did not seem to be intimidated by my presence at all.

Now as I type this the feeders and I are safely tucked inside. I keep looking out to see if the bear will visit again but all I see is the raccoon cleaning up the peanuts that fell to the ground.  Maybe it will show up again or maybe it won't.  Maybe I need to start being even more careful when I go outside in the dark.

One thing is for sure:  tomorrow when the sun is bright, I am going across the road to check out the spot where the bear was sniffing the ground most closely.  Maybe the missing peanut feeder is over there.


DAY 2

WOWWWEEEEE!
If I thought yesterday's encounter was close, I was very very wrong.  This evening, a bear was standing on the first step up to my front porch.

Fortunately, I had already brought the feeders in.  I was just looking out the window to see if the raccoon had come back.  Instead, this very large black creature walked into view.  It checked out the spots under where the feeders normally are, sniffing high in the air to see if any feeders were still present.  It leaned against one of the shepherd's hooks, threatening to break it.  I watched as it started to run away when a car went by but it didn't go far.  And finally, it turned towards the house.  On its first step up, I opened a window, yelled at it and smacked my hands on the window sill.  My heart was pounding.  Then I remembered the cat was out in the enclosed portion of the porch.  EEK!

Frankly, I'd been rather blase about bears.  I wasn't worried about coming across one when I was out walking.  Only this spring, after four years of wandering in the bush, did I buy myself a whistle.  I've heard stories of people worrying about encountering bears.  And inside my head, I was thinking, "what's the big deal?"

Well, here I was, safely inside my house where the bear couldn't reach me and it felt as though the walls of the house had turned into paper that the bear would rip through at any moment.  While I don't intend to become a nervous nelly, I am certainly going to be more aware of bears.  I am going to keep the woodshed door latched.  I am going to look carefully before I step outside at dusk or later.  I am going to make sure the feeders are in even if the birds are still eating.

Oh, and yes, I did go across the road earlier in the day to see if the missing peanut feeder was there and it wasn't.  Probably it would have been uselessly bent out of shape even if it had.

WOW!

If I can figure out how to, I will try to upload a photo of the prints the bear left in the neighbour's garden.