Since we have relocated to our new house that borders hundreds of acres of woods in the Catskill Mountains, we have yet to see bear tracks or any hint of a bear.Well, today is a different day. On our first day from having to get up early to get my eldest daughter off to school, I heard a strange noise, followed by my dogs hysterically barking in our sun room. Sleepily, I went to see what the commotion was all about & lo & behold, I saw Mr. or Ms. Bear, (I couldn't examine it that closely, y'know) eating bird seed from the demolished bird feeder in our back yard.  The bear weighed between 250 and 300 pounds, so it was a yearling, just venturing away from mom but not too far away!

As I took pictures for this story, I was on the telephone with the police and was told that since it had eaten a lot of seed, it's appetite should have been satisfied so it would leave us alone. Who would have thought bears like bird seed?

Since putting this story out to some of my Net friends, it appears as bears ARE after bird feeders these days and making quite a nuisance of themselves, leaving owners big bear piles of bird seed in their yards to clean up. It may be best to keep the feeders down or far enough away from your house. In some towns in Canada people are being fined for keeping feeders up! You can rest assure, mine won't be going back regardless of how *cool* my pictures turned out, I don't want to see anymore bears that close!  My feathery friends still visit despite their lack of free food since the incident.

It's not recommended to shoot them but it had crossed my mind to shoot near it to scare it away, if it didn't leave. After some research on the Net, (some links below) I learned that if you're trapped outside with them, you should walk backwards slowly while making a lot of noise while throwing things at them, (if you can). If the bear attacks you, do not fight it, PLAY DEAD! To do this, curl up in a ball on the ground and cover your neck with your hands.

People beware! The reason to keep your bird feeders up during the summer months is not because we will be preventing the birds from surviving on their own but an open invitation to every bear within a 20 to 40 mile radius to come munch on your little tasties and scare the dickens out of you.  According to some bear experts in NY, "Bird seed is to bears as Milky Way chocolate bars is to a chocoholic!"  Consider yourselves warned!

22 August, 2K
It appears as our bear has "marked" our home for one to get vittles at.  The other dark morning around 5 AM, the neighbors dogs were barking furiously while our dogs ran frantically back and forth, the length of the house. My husband was in the garage on his way out when he heard the rustling of garbage on the other side, (the dogs were still going bonkers). He openend the garage door with the automatic opener and (fortunately) scared a very large creature into the woods but only after it knocked over a weeks worth of garbage to the side of our house. After telling my story to some locals who have in turn told their bear stories, I'm surprised since relocating to the Catskill Mountains 2 years ago, I haven't run into any other bear, besides signs in the snow ... no they don't always hybernate in the winter. We have vowed to not leave anything edible outside from now on even though these bears just say "cuddle me!"

Follow the links to learn more on how to keep your family safe by keeping your backyard and camp site free from bears.

Check the Bear Den for more information
and a map of where Black Bears roam.

Here's a list of Bears and You safety tips from Alaska.com

Catskill Mountain writer, Shirley Fischler's column,
"Bear with us as we take out the trash!"

More stories by Rochelle Jourdan.

Comments

Ro, your bear story brought up Alaska memories.  I collected a few experiences up there but never got pics! (Just scares and/or curiosities.)  Juneau (& most Alaska towns/villages I would say) have numerous "Garbage Bears". After my husband & I left Nome after an accident on my ankles, and came back to Juneau, we arrived there with very little money. We were met at the the airport (accidently) by an old friend who was happy to let us move into his brothers trailer house as his brother had been sent away to treatment for about a year! The deal was we'd have to clean it up as it had been thoroughly trashed in the last great alcoholic party. So it had some windows cracked and 1 or 2 out. One of the first evenings there, before the cracked window in the kitchen which also had a hole in it, had been replaced, I cooked a free salmon for supper. That night I awoke to trash can noises and there was about a 500# black bear on the porch, (police estimates).  That scared me silly, as I could just see the bear deciding to investigate the fish smell from our evening meal, wafting out through the bad window.  I was also afraid to make much noise waking Dave and dialing and talking to the police. But it had to be done & they arrived. They were on the trail of 2 different ones in our valley that night so were right there. Dave maintains to this day I told him to go out there and shoo the bear away. I didn't of course, I think it was more like find things to throw to distract it until they had it under control.

At one point I lived right across from the capitol building on the side of a mountain covered with brush. I awoke one morning to hear what sounded just like a little baby laying outside my window crying.  It was a young bear calling for mom.  I called police again as it was time for workers to be coming to work, etc. and figured that could be a touchy situation.

They handle some of the calls with rubber bullets. The bears really love the baby pampers, etc. with pooey in it and sometimes will ingest a lot of plastic that way. Juneau had an ordinance in effect that if your trash cans were not secure and secured, you could be fined $100. One time a tiny cub wandered right into the operating room of the hospital when for some reason the doors were open.

Dave is a sculptor and did some "garbage bears" complete with dumpsters and round cans.  They were great.  We had in mind to market them as with a chain like McDonalds or some such to help both the homeless AND the dispossed garbage bears. (It was their territory 1st you know). But like most of our great ideas it never developed.

When I was sent out to the village of Shismaref (spelling?) at one time, they had had a polar bear kill a native fellow the previous week.  It was during the dark season and the fellow was walking with a girlfriend, and the bear rushed them. He pushed the girlfriend down an ice-slide into one of the homes but it got him. According to the paper at that time, it had eaten approximately 60# of the unlucky fellow, (from the bear-autopsy).  So that caused me to do a little looking over my shoulder as we made our rounds there. I guess he had been following school kids before the fatal time.  (I wonder still if the kids weren't safer than the gangs with guns, etc. in places like Oceanside, etc. ) 

With a perverted sense of logic, I had decided from the local "bear reports" from the Juneau News, compared to the domestic violence calls, that the bears were safer than the dangers of home.

Well, so much for these excerpts!!     Love & peace to all....Joyce S

My sister had a bear in her back yard a couple of summers ago and she lives in town! The bear had come into town and had torn down a bird feeder in a neighbors yard (they sort of shared back yards). It was just a small bear (about half the size of the one you took pictures of) and the game commission eventually used a dart gun to tranquilize the bear and get it out of the tree so it could be transported back to a safer location.  I guess that bears must be attracted to bird seed. In my sister's case, the assumption was that there had been so much development in recent months that the bear's habitat had been disturbed, thus forcing it into city limits to find something to eat. In your case, you have a large forest right in your back yard and the bear probably thought that bird seed was just part of the menu. A large problem is that humans have a tendency to feed bears and make them completely unafraid of us.  Campers seem to be the most guilty parties.

The Pennsylvania Game commission has really started cracking down on campers who leave bait out for bears or who feed the bears on purpose.  Hopefully that, and the relocation of the displaced bears will help keep them thriving in Pennsylvania.

They are such powerful beasts and amazing to watch. Graceful they are NOT, though. It amazes me that they amble so clumsily along yet can cover great distances in little time if need be.

Tim and I had one wander into a friends camp we were staying at a couple of summers ago. We had been stashing garbage bags in the outhouse/shed for disposal when we took our trip into town where there was a dumpster. A mother bear smelled our trash and came to investigate. Tim made a mad dash for our car that was parked in the yard but I had to go back for my Marlboros. Tim said that was when he KNEW I was seriously addicted to nicotine......*snicker*

Your pictures were fascinating, though. It is almost like being there!

Much love,
JeanJeannie