Bear Robber

Well, it happened. Right on schedule and on the evening of the very day when we were going to take the bird feeder down. Except that we didn’t. And wouldn’t ya know? We were quietly reading after dinner and there was a loud bang on the side of the house. Old Smokey was back. Breaking into our hanging stash of new and improved suet and bird seed. At least it looked like Smokey. A real heavy weight. Probably too big for a sow who had just spent the winter hibernating and birthing a cub or two. Or three. We were even visited one spring by a mom and four cubs. Must have been a really restless snooze.

Anyway, my intrepid bride banged on the window and Smokey beat a fast retreat back into the woods. She stifled an initial urge to go outside to rescue the gruesome remains of the bird feeder. That idea was scratched on the thought Smokey could actually be a mom with cubs. Bad form to encounter a bear mom with her cubs. They tend to take great umbrage to perceived threat and are often inclined to show it. Besides an early morning retrieval of the bird feeder showed it to have survived well, barring some residual angst and a mild case of PTSD. Alas, our precious suet and bird seed were gone.

Time to take the hint and retire the bird feeder to a quiet summer vacation in a warm dark closet until the snow flies again. Otherwise the bears will be lining up out there like it was a Federally funded food program for homeless bears. Caves abandoned and food foremost on their minds. Which I guess they will be. Homeless, that is. And hungry.

Mallards have been making our pond a regular way stop. No offense to them, but we still await the arrival of their little cousins. Wood ducks and crowned mergansers. We hope that a pair will make a home of our new duck house and raise a family. A pair of bluebirds recently turned up their noses–beaks, bills, whatever–at our new blue bird house. Still recovering from the humiliation of that. After all, what do the “White Cliffs of Dover” have that we don’t have”? Bummer.