When we bought the house, the previous owners told us that there were bears in the area. Our local freebie paper had a large article about bears a few weeks back. Things like don’t feed the birds after April 1; place garbage at the curb only on pick-up morning or in bear-proof containers, etc. We met our new neighbor Aileen a few days ago and she asked if we had seen the bear yet. She said she hadn’t seen one this year yet and thought that maybe the road construction not too far from us was keeping them away. Hah, I thought. Sure. Bear, right. I’ve had a bird feeder out since we arrived and hadn’t seen anything. My Mother cautioned me against it. I told her until I saw a bear, I’d keep feeding the birds. After all, I don’t want the cardinal pair that frequents it to think I’ve forgotten them. And what about the Tufted Titmouse? He’d be upset! I figured if he was going to come around he’d do it when I was taking the bird food out in the morning in my bathrobe and slippers. That would be just my luck.

Well, this morning I put off feeding the birds. Not sure why. Lazy I guess. I was in the office talking to Rick and enjoying my coffee when I looked out the window (looking to see what birds were at the feeder). It was about 7:15 a.m. There it was: THE BEAR; sitting on the ground with the cast iron bird feeder rolled onto its side. He was licking what was left of the seeds from yesterday right out of the bottom! “Rick, Rick, look, the BEAR!” He looked at me skeptically, thinking I was teasing him. I got so excited on my way to grab my camera that I got the dogs barking. He left the feeder before I could get back with my camera, but Rick happened to snap a few quick photos while he was close to the house with his camera. The bear looked in our side gate and then leisurely strolled up the sidewalk like he’d done it a thousand times before. He stopped at the stairs up to the front door. I thought he was going to come up them, but he continued on along the sidewalk. By this time the dogs knew something pretty exciting was happening. Alex looked out the window and let out a deep growl.  The other dogs started barking. The bear looked up to see what the commotion was and wasn’t too worried. He continued on around by our garage and Rick was able to get some pics of him over the fence. Rick got brave and stood outside the fence to get a better shot. The bear didn’t like that much and decided to leave. We last saw him walking right down the middle of the road to go and visit the neighbors. Our first bear! He was gorgeous! I’ll post a photo if I can figure out how.                                         

I won’t be feeding the birds out front anymore. Maybe in the back…