Phew! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had the time, inclination or energy to post anything here. I didn't even have anything previously written that I could throw on. But the trip down to Pelee was wonderful so I hope you will forgive my negligence.
This, however, is not what shames me.
No, to understand what it is you need to remember how I reacted when the bear threatened to step up onto my front porch. In case you don't remember, I will simply say that I felt as though the walls of the house had turned into paper and the bear was going to slash its way through at any moment.
So this leads to the current situation.
The seed feeders had not been left out while I was down in Pelee for the obvious reasons. The nectar feeders had been safely left out, many emptied by hungry hummingbirds. The neighbour had assured me that he was sure the bear had taken off up north, into the QE II Wildlands Provincial Park.
With confidence, I put out all the feeders on Friday - nine seed/peanut feeders and six nectar feeders. Then I went out to the Prairie Smoke property and, afterwards, to do a monitoring job that I'm working on. I was walking in rubber boots for 7 hours; it was darned hot and my feet really hurt by the time I'd returned home.
Recuperating on the couch, I kept an eye out for the raccoon but it didn't appear so I left the feeders out until I was sure the birds were finished feeding. I admit, I had selfish reasons to do so. Many of the birds which had been frequenting my feeders had disappeared as a result of the lack of feeders during my absence while at Pelee. By leaving the feeders out, I was hoping to encourage them to return as I wanted them to be around during the Carden Challenge coming up next weekend.
Finally, in late evening, I remembered that I had not yet brought the feeders in. I entered the kitchen and picked up a bit of a nasty smell which I concluded was just the composting which needed to be put out. Switching on the light in the porch, I headed out to bring the feeders in. What did I find? That the raccoon had in fact been by and knocked down a few of them. It takes two trips to bring in the seed feeders, the nectar feeders had survived all week while I was away and my feet still hurt so I left out the nectar feeders......and I went to bed.
In the middle of the night, the smell of the composting woke me up. Boy, it was really really bad!
When I got up the next morning, I looked out to discover that many of the nectar feeders were on the ground. Darn that raccoon for going after them after a week of leaving them alone.
Only problem was, the feeders were all shattered and a rather large pile of poop with a distinct bear print had been left on my driveway. Mr. Bear had ruined four of my nectar feeders and I realized that the composting was not the source of the bad smell - it had been the bear.
Now think about it.....I had blithely stepped outside without even looking first. The smell was fresh. That means that the bear had just been there! It was fortunate that I turned on the light (I often don't) as I think that is what scared it away.
Now we move to Saturday evening. I've already brought in all my feeders, both seed and nectar, when I noticed the neighbour and his wife and uncle standing looking at the house across the road. The wife ran back into the house and I called out the window to find out what was going on. The bear was at the back door of the house across the road.
Curious, and feeling brave with the others standing there watching, I went out to chat with them. Out comes the wife, she's just phoned the owner of the house across the road.
And what do we see.......that very owner, all of 94 years old and weighing about 80 pounds, coming out the back door of the house, looking around for the bear.
And THAT is why I am so ashamed. Here is this sprightly pip of a senior showing no fear while earlier in the month, how had I reacted?
I had cowered in my house. Oh the shame of it all!
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