Black Bear spotting in Lime Rock

The bear that has been spotted in numerous locations in our area came visiting my house tonight.  My husband went to let our dogs out when our male Schipperke started barking on the deck and refused to venture down the steps. Ironically our male Schipperke's name is Bear.  That's when Danny noticed one of our bird feeders was bent to the ground.  He picked up a flashlight and made a scan from the safety of our deck across the back yard when the light shown on the culprit.  A fairly large Black Bear was sitting, quite content, under our cherry tree with our large bird seed tote between his legs feasting away.  How he dragged that large tote from beside our deck and lifted the lid off, I'll never know.  The lid was leaning on the side of the tote as if it was removed with care. We watched him eat for a good fifteen, twenty minutes and apparently when he finished off the seed (will go out in the light of day to check out the tote) he meandered down into the back yard and off to wherever he happens to be traveling to next.

We really enjoy feeding and watching the birds -- especially this time of year when the Grosbeak's, Indigo Bunting's and EasternTowhee's stop by.  I hope we won't have to dispense with a hobby that we've enjoyed for decades.

It was pretty cool, though, to actually see this magnificent animal right in our backyard. I didn't get a good picture -- tried to get a shot with my phone, but it didn't come out. Last year my husband's cousin (a 1/2 mile away) got some great shots with a motion camera that he placed on his feeders. It's probably the same bear.