The bears are back

This year's bear activity in the neighborhood has been nonexistent until this weekend. Harley and Barb Kay had a bear visit their bird-feeder  while they were not home Saturday night. Very little damage to the feeders and Harley will be putting his game camera out to get photos if the bear(s) visits again.

Turkey Hunting Problem

We've all heard the story of the boy that went to school and told the teacher that the dog ate his homework. I went turkey hunting and a bear ate my decoy.

It's the start of the second week of spring turkey hunting season and I was up early this morning to try my luck at finding a gobbler. I had placed 5 decoy birds in a field before daybreak and positioned myself in a hedgerow 100 yards away. The plan was to draw a gobbler past my hiding place on his way to the decoys but a large black bear came in before any turkeys.



The bear came in very slowly, sneaking up on the decoy.



As the bear got close to the decoy, a cub then approached.



The mother bear grabbed the decoy by it's head and soon released the untasty bird. A close up view of this photo shows the decoy's head in the bear's mouth.



Mother bear didn't taste test any more decoys and had to explain to the cub about different breakfast plans. As the mother bear and cub walked toward me, 3 more cubs came out of the woods to join them.


No real turkeys were hurt today.

School Time for Bears

I had set up one of my game cameras in the neighbors back yard and got this picture of mother bear showing the cubs the location of a food source (bird feeder).

What's in your backyard?

I placed a game camera in a neighbor's backyard (by their request) and got the following photos.

Mother bear with two of the five cubs. The neighbor did see these bears as they walked by a window.


Turkeys




This raccoon shows up all the time.

Kids are Kids ... Even if They're Bear Cubs

Several of the neighbors on Joyce Road have reported seeing a mother bear with five (5) cubs and Jim and Mary Pickering have some pictures from a game camera to share.

Just like most kids, it's hard for the mother to interrupt play time.



Look mom ... no hands ...



and now for the dismount ... a double back flip ...



Peace and quiet ...

The bears are back

A couple of the neighbors have seen a bear with cubs in the neighborhood within the last week. I placed a game camera at one of the bears favorite spots and got the following photos.



I will place some more cameras in this area and see if I can get some better photos.

Neighborhood Bears

I started the day by heading to Rome to get gas for mowing the lawns but found a black bear walking/running up Joyce Road near Jim and Mary Koval's. The bear made a left turn up Harley and Barb's driveway where I got this picture before it entered the woods.

The bear was headed toward our farm property so I quickly drove the car to the field behind the barn and waited for the bear. After a couple of minutes I got out of the car and walked towards Harley's house where I meet the bear (at less than 15 yards) in the tall goldenrod. The bear headed south towards Dana Green's and I wasn't able to get another picture of this bear.


I returned to the car and had planned to show Harley the picture of the bear but found a second, smaller bear at Joyce Road near the driveway to the barn. This bear slowly walked up the road as I followed in the car.


The bear headed left and crossed Jan and Steve's driveway as it headed towards Miner's pond.


The bear then walked along the edge of the pond and back on Joyce Road. The bear continued north on the road and then headed for Gerry and Janet's lawn.


The bear walked towards the back of Gerry's lawn ...


and headed for the bird feeders. I shouted at the bear and it then headed for Gordon and Barb's lawn.



I continued to follow the bear with the car as it walked towards Gordon's bird feeder.


I got out of the car and shouted at the bear again as it approached the bird feeder. The bear then ran into the nearby woods.


Once in the woods, the bear stopped and watched me for a while and then walked slowly into the woods.

Animals on the move

The warm weather of spring has increased the animal activity in the neighborhood. I was at the farm yesterday afternoon and spotted a small flock of turkeys feeding. A big tom turkey was in full strut trying to impress the hens. While the turkeys feed they were joined by a couple of deer that joined the flock and grazed in the middle of the flock. I was was watching the turkeys and deer with binoculars and almost missed seeing a family of bears past within a 100 yards of me.



A mother bear and two cubs walked between me and the turkeys. These bears appear to be the same ones spotted at the farm last year.

Bear visit at Pickering Winery

We stopped at Pickering Winery late Friday evening and shortly after we left the bear made a visit to Jim and Mary's. Since the winery was closed the bear had to settle for bird seed. Jim and Mary now need a new bird feeder.

The photo was provided by the Pickerings.

Another bear sighting

A bear with a cub was at Jason Abell's farm and a photo taken with a digital game camera. The photo was provided by Jason's son David.

Visitor to neighborhood

We first saw the bear in the lawn behind the house at the north end of the raised bed garden. We were at Mary's raise bed flower garden less than 50 yards from the bear when we first spotted it. The bear then walked down along the garden, past the firewood logs and through the pines to the road. The bear stood in Joyce Road for a while to look at us before it crossed the road and walk through the field to Orion & Betty's (Burns) woods. The bear didn't seem to be very afraid and just walked around.

This bear had been at Paul Cook's and Aggi got pictures of it climbing onto their deck. The bear was also at Jim Kovel's just before it came to our place.

This looks to be the same bear that got in Gerry & Janet Miner's bird feeder twice last week.

Paul and Aggi's bear visit

Paul and Aggi Cook provided the following photos of a bear climbing onto their deck.

New critters at the farm

We went up to the farm this evening and while walking around I spotted this bear with two cubs about 100 yards away. The cubs were so small we could only see them in the grass when they stood up. We watched the bears for at least 25 minutes and at one point the two cubs were playing "tag" in a tree near the edge of the field.