Bear Alert!

 The pictures are blurry because my camera was on manual focus and I didn't have enough time to adjust or switch to auto (I hadn't figured out how to switch back at that point), so the pictures are blurry, but there are pictures so you can see how close the bear is to our place.  We were looking out our living room window.

 db heard a rattling sound outside, and saw the bear batting at the birdfeeder, knocking the seed out of it. The bear cubs were licking up the seed from the patio and the ground.

My mom was visiting at the time so she got to see the excitement as well. She had just arrived from Montreal, so this was quite a welcome.

Here are the bear cubs eating up the seed. There was actually 3 cubs. The mom bear headed over the fence. We watched the little ones eat up the seed. Then they went across the yard, over the fence and hopped from the fence to a tree to climb down into the forest. Amazing to see, but also a bit scary.

So bye, bye birdfeeder. That had to go.

db and I realized that we need to scare the bears off as soon as we see them. It's definitely not a good idea to watch, but I think we were a bit shocked by the sight of them.

I only put the birdfeeder out in the day time when I'm home and we bring it in at night, or if we're not going to be at home for a while. 

Friday, db barbecued some veggies for my vegan eggplant parmesan dish. Later he was about to go out and clean the bbq, when he noticed Gigi at the patio door acting quite excited because she obviously saw something in the yard. db spotted another bear! This time it was reaching up to the hummingbird feeder. db made a loud clapping noise and it ran off. He decided to leave the bbq until the morning since it was already dark, and we couldn't see where the bear had gone. Even though it was probably long gone, there was no point risking it.


So bye, bye hummer feeder. It goes out in the morning now as well, and comes in at night.

Well, we finally saw a bear in our neighbourhood. It's been over 2 years since we've lived in this apartment, so that's pretty good. Hopefully we won't see any again for a long, long time. I'd like those bears to stay on the other side of the fence in the woods, and maybe even further up the mountain deeper in the woods. I know the food supply has been slow coming for them, so I think that's why they're searching for other sources. The salmon berries are out now though so hopefully that means they'll stick to what they should be eating.

Birdfeeder Madness

There was a brief moment today when I was swinging the broom in the direction of a squirrel that was making an attempt to jump into the seed catcher below the bird feeder (yes, I do love animals -- all animals) that I reminded myself of my grandmother, and I started laughing.

My grandmother would rush into the backyard to chase gray squirrels from her garden. She had a Canadian flag on a pole that was leaning against the back porch (not mounted or anything. I don't even know where the flag came from?), and she would grab the pole and chase the squirrel out of the yard.
So today when I was swinging the broom in the direction of the squirrel to give it a fright, I felt my grandmother's presence. Haha! The difference is that my grandmother really didn't like the squirrels and I do, but I can't have them in the bird seed catcher.

Our feeder is squirrel proof. The feeding portals close when anything heavier than a bird latches onto the perch. It was all working so well, until we had too much sunflower seed collecting on the ground. So, we had to add a seed catcher below the feeder. It works like a charm to clean up the yard, but it also proved to be a good landing pad when the squirrel jumped from the clematis trellis to the seed catcher. That's when the broom came out.

db & I decided to put a feeder up just before the winter. There's a nice little bird shop down the hill from us where we bought a small feeder. For much of the winter there wasn't much activity, and I was losing hope that we'd attract any birds. We had purchased 20lbs of black sunflower seed! The occasional chickadee came by, but it was pretty quiet. Then spring came and suddenly I was having to add more seed every other day, and occasionally every day! It's been great to watch the birds coming and going. I've even seen a mom and baby chickadee come by, the mom feeding the baby as they hop from feeder to rhodo to alder. The cats love it.

Next I think we'll look into getting a feeder that holds nyjer seed to attract finches and pine siskins. That would be fun.