Bears

Last summer we only had two bear sightings on our property. I don't know if it was too hot, too loud (repair men), or if there was just a shortage of bears. But this summer we see bears every time we are here!  I've already talked about the bears that got in the trash Memorial Day weekend. This month I had guests at the house and they saw bears. This week we've seen the same bears two days in a row. Mama and her three cubs have adopted us. The first day, Keith was working on the deck and he called me: "Bring the camera. I hear something below."  Right at the end of the deck there were three cubs climbing a tree. We decided they were eating ants.  They must have played in that tree for an hour before Mama showed up to take them home!

The next day we kept hearing this noise outside and Keith couldn't figure out how the squirrels moved his bird feeder over the rail. After dinner, when we casually looked out to see if there were any birds on the feeder we saw this!

Apparently bears like birdseed!  Who knew?  It was raining quite a bit, but they didn't seem to mind at all. They stayed for well over an hour eating and playing. They finally left when the neighborly "paparazzi" showed up. Mama left with two of the cubs, but one cub kept playing in the top of a tree. Boy did he make some noise when he realized he had been left behind!  I guess he heard Mama calling because he finally ran away. We are certainly being entertained and are learning a lot about bears. 

By the way, all of these photos are taken from inside the house through an open window, or from the deck. I'm not going to venture too close to a Mama and her babies!