But did you get photos??
 
Sue hamilton

--- On Sun, 11/2/08, JAMES WILSON <> wrote:

From: JAMES WILSON <>
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Unusual visitor to the bird seed
To: 
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008, 9:38 AM

A ramble kinda off topic ...

   I had 14 young birders at my house on Friday afternoon (a 1/2 day of school)
to make a simple bird feeder, talk about bird seed and do a little backyard
birding.  I had a 40 lb. bag of seed that was mostly milo; a 40 lb. bag that was
millet, black oil, & a few peanuts; and a container with mostly black oil
(about 5 pounds).  The kids got to fill a plastic bag with seed to start them on
their bird feeding careers.  The seed was standing by the garage door.

I left the seed out on Friday and it was on my list to put it away on Saturday,
but I forgot.  Coming home at around 6:30 Saturday evening, I pulled into the
driveway and said to my wife "That is my seed to attract the bear."

       Note:  A black bear has been roaming the Eastern Shore for a couple of
months, most recently in Centreville eating garbage.  It was seen in my
neighborhood eating bird seed off and on for the past month, but never in my
yard which would be a feast for a bear ... bird seed, suet, Asian pears, apple
trees, brocolli, beets, etc.

Well ... the bear showed up around 9:30 pm.  We could hear something poking
around the bags which were right outside our bedroom window.  We opened the
front door and looked out with a really bright flashlight and there it was ...
about 10 feet away ... sitting with its nose in a bag of seed.  It looked up but
I am sure he could not see us because of the light but he certainly could hear
us talking.  After a minute or two, he slowly got up and walked off.  He did not
appear to be a small bear as reported.  But I guess all bears at 10 feet look
pretty big.
I thought that would be the end of it, but a couple more times during the night
I heard some noises and at 4 am I opened the front door again with the light. 
He was sitting quite comfortably in the driveway with bird seed scattered all
around.  I talked to him for a couple of minutes but he did not reply and then
he got up and walked thru my pansies.  I hollered at him for doing that ,but
again, he paid no heed.

Letting the 2 dogs out (Corgis) in the morning was a treat.  The one ignored
the mess but the other's nose went into overtime.  And one point he hit a
really good spot and his whole body actually twitched and he jumped back.

Conclusions:  Black bears prefer black oil seed.  He ate the whole 5 pounds.
Second, was the millet with peanuts.  The 40 pound bag of milo plus meager
amounts of good stuff was totally untouched.  Not even spilled.  And so much for
leaving up the hummingbird feeders to attract vagrants ... vagrant bears maybe. 
He trashed one hummer feeder like totally.  The squirrel proof feeder with the 2
inch wire mesh now has a few gaping holes that a squirrel can easily get thru. 
Plus, he visited the 3 other places in the yard where I put out seed.  He also
must have been around the chicken coop.  When I went to let the chickens out,
they were silent - no clucks no crows no nothing.

When first spotted, we called the police to see if DNR was interested in coming
out with a tranq gun.  They were not.  DNR does have a couple of traps set up
because the bear is getting a little too comfortable with us humans.

I know that bears may be a common problem at other parts of the state, but this
is the Eastern shore.

I added this visitor to my yard list.  He did eat bird seed so that counts for
something.
Jim Wilson
Queenstown
ps:  All followup emails saying "How stupid can you be" will promptly
be placed in the "Yes, I know how stupid I can be" file.