Last night around 9:00 I heard panting outside the window.... Selkie is outside?... No. Neighborhood dog... maybe. So I got my mighty flashlight and went out on the deck to check. We have a second floor deck and have strung our birdfeeders between it and a pine tree so they are 15 feet off the ground. There appeared to be a very large dog.... NO a bear... pacing back and forth at the entrance to the woods road not more than 20 feet from the house. It saw/heard me on the deck and started back into the woods but there was a loud hissing and scrambling sound up a tree in the woods and the bear seemed nervous, returning to the yard then back to the road. Slowly it approached the house sniffing and making other quiet muttering sounds maybe chomping (wish I had my recorder) looking up at me and the bird feeders beside me, out of reach. It approached the back door but I growled at it and it retreated, going around our huge woodpile. It stood on its hind legs sniffing (I think I saw nipples) and then tried to climb the wood pile but thought better of it. We watched each other for a good 5 minutes, my palms were a bit sweaty but I was totally engrossed and loving every minute of it (it helped I was 15 feet above). It seemed nervous too, wanting the bird seed (as far as I could tell), very aware of me but uneasy about passing whatever it was in the tree behind it in the woods..... for a while caught between the house and the woods. Finally it approached too close to the back door and I shouted BAD BEAR.... off it trundled back down the woods road passed whatever it was avoiding before (still have no idea what was in the tree... do bears hiss like a very large cat? could it have been another bear or this ones cubs??) I will be cautious, I will make sure the bear doesnt think people are harmless or sources of food, will be respectful. But what a wonderful experience!!!! The photo below is of a previous bear visit (it was too dark to photograph this bear)... we live on and near land that has conservation easements on it so there is plenty of protected wild land for them. So GRATEFUL https://flickr/photos/yeimaya/5071163473/
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:10:30 +0000
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