I have no experience with bears but it sure sounds like one visited you last night. Picking up garbage is not an easy task. I feel for you. Young bears are spotted in my area from time to time in late spring early summer. I have never seen one. I suspect that deer have cleaned out my bird feeders during the night once or twice. Do deer eat birdseed?

LOL @ Annie!

Glad we don't have to reckon w/bears. Just raccoons.

Sand Hill Cranes only here where we live.

Happy2b, to my knowledge deer don't clean out bird feeders. But raccoons sure do!

I found my larger feeder across the road. It's pretty well crushed, but I hope I can reshape it. Or maybe the manufacturer sells replacement parts. No sign of the other feeder yet. The big shepherd's hook is shot.

I'm about to attack the garbage mess. I probably should have delayed my shower this morning until after that job.

I have had deer in my very low-to-the-ground bird feeders. They especially like sunflower seeds and will knock the top off and wipe out the entire container. They have no interest in garbage though.

I didn't know deer would do that, Elizabeth. My feeders are hung fairly high, but not too high for a deer, I'm sure. Maybe I've been unfairly blaming raccoons all these years--although they are quite bold and have challenged me if I confront them.

I've had deer clean out the feeders hanging from the tree. Saw one standing on it's hind legs to get to a feeder!

However, they never have carried off the feeders or the Shepard's hooks. ;-)

We have to bring the feeders in at nite, because of the deer. They have ruined a couple.

We've had raccoons carry off feeders so now we bring them in at night too.

I'm pretty sure that I'd be nervous about living in bear country, looking around whenever I ventured outside. Maybe not; I've been able to get used to lots of scary things that really turned out to be no big deal!

Does it make you anxious, Alisande? I hope that your feeders show up, too!

That is scary to me, having bears around. Don't forget your tick repellent, Alisande!

I just barely deal with the very small wild mammals typical of the 'burbs where I live, I'd rather they not be present. Personally, things like bears or ticks in any vicinity of where I'd consider living would be on the list of "non-negotiable- need to go elsewhere" for me. Such dangers are easily avoidable but I guess some put up with them. I wouldn't . Yikes, be careful.

Bears are starting to come out of hibernation here too. Several have already been spotted in town, but so far none in our neighborhood. It is only a matter of time though.

DH went up to our place in upstate PA this morning for the annual HOA meeting and when he called he said he saw 2 bears in a large clearing not far from our house. He thought it was a mother with her one year old cub. If we decide to take a hike in the woods we always make noise so that we don't surprise a mama and her cubs.

I've given up though on bird feeders. We hung one from a high branch thinking it was too slender to support the weight of a bear but the very next day found it smashed.

Yes, I'm sad that I can no longer feed the birds. I had a bear visit last year and I'm afraid that people will want to harm/kill the bears. So, I decided to discontinue the bird feeding because it attracts the bears. I now have hummingbird feeders.

No bears here, but something took down a hummingbird feeder between 8 pm and 6:30 AM, I think we have a raccoon again.

It worries me a little that I was certain I saw both feeders across the road before I got dressed, and an hour later only one of them was there. if I was right about seeing both, that means the bear was very much around in daylight. Also, my son drives to work past my house before the trash is collected, and he didn't see any of our garbage in the road. So all the damage must have been done very early in the morning, not in the middle of the night.

A few years ago a bear visited our place several nights in a row. He first got into the garage and knocked over the trash can we use for grain storage. We moved that but the next night he returned and found a bucket of horse feed supplement and bit the bucket until the lid popped off.

The following night he returned and perhaps smelled the grain that had been in the trunk of my wife's car, and he bit the bumper of the car!

Although the best picture I managed to get of a bear isn't very good.

Great photos!

Alisande, did you say that you're in Connecticut? Three cubs! Be aware, bears come around in broad daylight. They have great noses and can also remember where they have previously found treats like sunflower seeds and grain.

About ten days ago a Massachusetts homeowner had a black bear smash down her back yard chicken coop, then either the bear or coyotes killed the laying hens but for one.

On the NH-Mass border they have been seen in morning daylight. They are very hungry and will help themselves to any dog food, seeds, feed, or cooling pies and baked goods. So best not to leave grain in a lightly built shed or a mudporch.

Two years ago I lost a very nice feeder to black bear/s. It's likely somewhere in the surrounding woods.

Lately I've seen a few opossum in the back yard. I really like them.

Nicole -- where are you located that you have hummingbirds? Maybe I should put some up high -- at least during the day. Still ICE overnight here. Ugh.

petalique.....Colorado, base of Pikes Peak. Against the woods. There's a campground below us, that's how rural we are. We do see bears during the day. Altho....last year I didn't see so much as one. They did eat my neighbors chickens, leaving one.

LOL A couple of the posts saying the bears ate all the chickens but one, made me think of the philosophy of leaving some food on your plate so as not to overeat. Do you think the bears were doing that?

We have also had bears visit during the day. I think they may be more active at night, but daylight doesn't stop them from coming around.

Great photos! Here are a couple that I took last spring of a juvenile cub. It was his first year on his own and he was a bit of a neighborhood trouble maker. He must have moved on later in the year because the mischief stopped during the late summer.

My neighbor's wildlife cam took this one. It was time stamped at 4:00 in the morning.

Yikes!!! I'm glad I don't live in bear country.

Suzieque, they'll come after hummingbird feeders too.

Petalique, no, I'm in Pennsylvania. And my son and DIL have chickens. This is their first year with them, and they're very fond of their chickens. I wonder if there's something they can do to prevent a bear going after them. Judging from the look of my smashed feeder, I can't imagine a fence that would keep out a determined bear.

I've been reading this:

http://www.bearsmart.com/live/bear-deterrents/

They have some potentially useful suggestions, although if a bear ran up a tree I think the last thing I'd want to do is stand underneath and hit the tree repeatedly with a baseball bat.

"I suspect that deer have cleaned out my bird feeders during the night once or twice. Do deer eat birdseed?"

Yes, deer eats birdseed. They are particularity fond of sunflower seed. I've had to elevate my feeder out of reach of deer. Unfortunately, the birds liked it better when the feeder was lower. Before elevation, the deer cleaned out my feeder almost every night.

Some municipalities in my area have a ban on deer feeding. It promotes clustering of deer and makes it easier to pass diseases among the animals. The other reason is that these are wild animals and we should keep them wild. The survivors will be more healthy. Another problem is stopping the handout too soon or from other circumstances. Deer left to their own devices will find forage or move on until they do. A feeding station often clusters more deer than there is forage for them. When the feeding stops, they are stressed until they find more food. Some may starve and weaken before they remedy their needs; Some don't make it.

I remembered seeing this image somewhere and so searched for it....someone tried to keep bear out of the feeder by suspending it from wire between posts, or trees:

At my place the same feeder was foraged - either by deer or racoon. In ill leave it empty for awhile to see if the critter helps itself to the others.

My missing feeder was attached to a heavy-duty swivel with a trigger snap--impossible for him to open, so he just ripped the feeder off it. Even if the feeder turns up, I'm sure it's a total loss. I can replace it, but I feel bad because my son and daughter-in-law gave it to me. My own fault for forgetting to bring the feeders indoors at night.

Well, my neighbor has one of those motion-sensitive nighttime cameras, and he got a picture of a bear with three cubs last night. I wonder if it's the same one I photographed a few years ago.

That's a good sized bear family.

A mama and 3 cubs!!! I kinda want to "awww" but then I sorta want to "oh crap!" I have very little bear experience.

Three cubs -- isn't that about the max for black bear to birth? I'd give mama a wide birth. When I'm in the gardens or take a walk up our wooded road, I carry a regular size marine air horn with me. I'm only supposing that it might freighter off a bear.

Here's a question. Twice, a few weeks ago, I happened across two (different) programs about men who were attacked by grizzly bears. After getting mauled and chomped on a bit, each of the men played dead and the bears left. One guy, after about 5 mins, slowly raised his head, saw now bear, and then sat up further, only to have the grizzly return and smash flip around violently. Then, after playing dead again, the bear departed.

I once mentioned the playing dead ruse (for black bear attack) to a hunter, and he replied that the bear would then begin to eat the "dead" person. Gulp.

Here is my question: would bears be deterred from gnawing on a person if that person had sprayed a bittering agent on themselves -- clothing and skin (legs, hands)? My dog (looked a bit like a bear, loved blueberries) could stand the smell of coffee and coffee grounds. Maybe I've never spotted ear or their track around out compost pile (plant scraps, teabags, fruit and vegetable scraps and peels, old onions, etcetera, because there are a lot of fragrant (strong) coffee grounds sprinkled throughout the wet (green) fresh compost.

Any thoughts? Experiences? I don't plan on doing personal field tests on the bitter orange spray.

petalique...."Timothy Treadwell"....famous for living with grizzly bears, then eaten by one. I watched a documentary about him. Link You might find it interesting.

I know black bears prefer to eat sweets. I remember a break in @ a Pepsi plant here. It drank gallons of concentrated raspberry iced tea.

I'm not sure about spraying yourself with something to try to discourage bears. You might just be "seasoning" yourself. :-) "MMmmmm, I like Spicy Food." says the bear.

I have heard that playing dead is a less effective measure against Black Bears, than Grizzly Bears. But mostly because Black Bears are much more likely to simply run off when you encounter it. And if one does attack its relatively more likely that it is doing so out of hunger.

Somewhere I have a image I saved, of a mother black bear with 5 little cubs, which is an almost unheard of number. Remarkably the photographer saw the same family the next spring and all 5 cubs and made it through the winter.

my sister was so excited when her weekend place in WV mountains was finished. for quite some time she would go every weekend. one weekend, broke her back planting zillions of hostas... knew they would do well in shade. came back a weekend or 2 later... ALL GONE!

she hung feeders from trees right off her deck so she could bird watch. she had some sort of contraption that made them pretty squirrel proof... now watching that was very entertaining.

she went there one weekend to find all the feeders dumped on the ground and she blamed the deer... they are pretty tall when on tip toes. she drove her SUV up next to trees, climbed up on roof and relocated feeders as high as she could reach. That'll fix those deer! next time she came back... all the feeders were mangled up and on the ground.... hmmm!

I feel for your sister with those hostas . . . they are deer candy. I've always been vigilant about spraying Liquid Fence on them, but all it takes is one slip-up. For me, that came at the end of last summer. Lulled into a false sense of security by years of the deer not bothering the hostas, I forgot to spray. Hostas disappeared. I hope your sister finds them coming up this spring. I highly recommend Liquid Fence. :-)

Here's a bear proof pole for bird feeding. We feed birds, too, and thank goodness haven't had to buy one of these. If you hike in grizzly bear country, always carry bear spray and make noise while hiking.

The pix didn't post. So here's a link to the bear proof pole.

https://thebirdstoreandmore.com/news-updates/bear-proof-bird-feeder-pole/

Skipper, I'm so conflicted! In that first video, I found myself rooting for the bear. :-)

Alisande, I understand you rooting for the bear. But...remember, "A fed bear is a dead bear". The bears need to be in the woods eating natural food. Check out this article and video about black bears getting too fat and dying early due to eating garbage and bird food in Washington state.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article208464354.html

Saying goodbye to an old summer fling is never easy, but on Monday the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) issued a warning that bears in the foothill communities of King County are getting fat and dying early, and it should make residents of Whatcom County think about what's best for the bear they fell in love with and nicknamed Barkley during the summer of 2017.

Rich Beausoleil, a WDFW bear biologist, is studying bears along the I-90 corridor, and his research shows bears in communities such as Issaquah, North Bend, and Snoqualmie are nearly twice their average weight, in some cases, and are dying early, he told KOMOnews.com.

Bears seeking food are attracted into neighborhoods by the trash and bird food residents leave outside their homes, and humans who are frightened by them sometimes shoot them, Beausoleil said. Or the bears can be hit by cars.

"When they stay in the woods and they don’t come around people, survival is about 85 percent. But when they come in close contact with people and they visit these neighborhoods to get these food rewards, survival is about 59 percent," Beausoleil told KOMO.

Assuming Beausoleil's numbers hold up in Whatcom County, that would mean Barkley or any other bears that visit area neighborhoods, are 30.6 percent less likely to survive than any bears that stay in the woods.

"While some people may like seeing them because they think they’re neat, the next neighbor may not and so that’s how they’re dying," Beausoleil told KOMO. "They’re getting shot from homeowners. Or they’re getting killed by vehicles, but more often they’re shot by homeowners because out of fear."

And if they're killed by people, they're getting fat — really, really fat.

"The average size of bears in Washington, for a female, is 150 pounds," Beausoleil said in a story posted on KING5.com. "Bears that inhabit neighborhoods and take advantage of trash and bird feeders, females are 300 pounds. The average size of a male bear in Washington is 250 pounds. We've seen bears on the ridge in Issaquah and in North Bend that are 450 pounds.

"These bears have become accustomed to people food, and they're being rewarded for taking advantage of it."

Hate to say it, big guy, but it's time for a diet.

Beausoleil is asking King and Snohomish coutnies to transition to bear-proof trash cans — not just bear-resistant containers that bears are smart enough to figure out — to help discourage bears, who can smell food from about two miles away.

He also asks homeowners to take down bird feeders now that spring is over and has even suggested homeowners associations consider banning them. If the food is not around, he says, they bears won't come around anymore.

"People are intentionally or unintentionally feeding bears and that's resulting in the death of bears, especially for newborn cubs," Beausoleil told KING5.

That's sad, Skipper. Believe me, I would never intentionally feed a bear. We're all happier when they stay in the woods. I made a mistake in leaving the bird feeders out overnight, but they wouldn't have been in use at all if it hadn't been so unseasonably cold here. My porch is covered with ice this morning. I hope the birds are okay, but I won't be putting new feeders out until winter. As I mentioned above, I stopped feeding all year round after a bear came one night and killed my dog Turpie.

Garbage is another matter. I've been reading up on bear deterrents, but haven't come across any sure-fire cures yet. Meanwhile, thanks again, Petalique, for telling me about the chickens. My son is taking the warning to heart and stringing electric fencing around the chickens' area.

Alisande, I'm so sorry about your dog. That's so sad to loose your Turpie that way. What state do you live in?

I'm in Pennsylvania.

I found the image of the mother bear with 5 cubs.

https://www.amazon.com/Bears-I-Thomas-Sears-ebook/dp/B008M9WZ4A

Wow, Bob--she looks big! I guess she'd have to be.

This morning I saw another picture my neighbor's camera caught during the night. Turns out there are four cubs, not three as we had thought. Two black and two cinnamon colored.

After dinner tonight we looked out to see these moose strolling the neighborhood.

Maybe this explains the mom with 5 cubs -- from this link:

"Female black bears have been adopting orphan cubs in the wild of New Hampshire over the years, but it not often seen. It is a bit of a novelty to see a brown bear doing the same, and in Alaska, a mother bear is causing quite a stir. Bear rehabilitator Ben Kilham of Lyme said he has witnessed orphans
being adopted by sows in the Granite State and noted it likely happens
more than people think."

Ben Kilham's books on bears are great reads, by the way.

That was my first thought when I saw the mama and five cubs, perhaps she took in an orphan or two. Amazing that she could provide for and protect all her brood.