Samantha has made some new friends!
She’d like to send out a huge thank you to our friend Emma for suggesting that the Momz put a bird seed feeder outside her window. I had told Emma I didn’t think we could because we’ve heard there are black bears in our area. Our state Fish and Game says we should not feed birds in the summer because it can draw in the bears and then they can become a nuisance. We had bears destroy bird feeders at our old house; so I only fed the birds in the winter there.
I got thinking about it, and I did a little research, and it seemed that perhaps sunflower seeds drew them in the most, and that if I used niger and safflower seed, they didn’t care for that. So that is what is hanging in the center of that pole, niger seed, and we’ve been having regular visits from the cute little goldfinches now.
Oddly enough, though, a week or two later, we had these visitors to our yard:
I wondered if what I had read was wrong, but the bears never went anywhere near the bird feeders, so I think it was just a coincidence. Once the dogs caught their scent all you-know-what broke loose, so I doubt those bears will be back for quite a while. That’s good, I don’t mind our cute little yellow visitors, but I don’t care to meet these two when I’m out in the yard! 🙂
Holy crap bears in the yard, what a site!! What sweet visitors for sam to watch.
Whoa! Bears are magnificent animals, AS LONG AS they stay where they belong. Ducky would have lost it if she’d seen them!
OMD!! I’d pass out if I saw black bears in my yard!!!! One came into a small town nearby and it was sedated to take out to the woods. Yes, it made the news! Haha!
The only time they make the news around here is when they show up in the cities (mostly in the southern part of the state), which actually happens more often than you’d think it would!
Oh I’m a little worried now. Hubs is using Sunflower seeds to trap the chippies. 🙁 Apparently a bear went into a goat’s pen the next town over last night. The owner was able to scare the bear off. But considering how Sampson reacts to a cat, I can’t imagine what would happen if it was a bear. Yikes!
It sure looks like Samantha is enjoying that feeder though!
The chippies love this niger seed! I had to upgrade those sacks to actual feeders, because the darn chippie kept chewing holes in those sacks. He never cared when I pounded on the window!
Wow! Bears! And we thought squirrels were exciting. 😉 I’m happy to see that Samantha has some birdie entertainment through her beautiful window on the world . . . and I hope those bears continue to keep their distance.
Yikes that bear is a little too close for me. I guess if you notice the feeder disrupted, then you can take them down. We had a bear come into our feeder at the cabin once in early Spring. We took it down for a while and the bear moved on. Thank goodness.
Almost every spring at our old house I’d leave my feeders up just a little bit too long, and come home to either destroyed or missing feeders!
I hope they continue to leave these alone, because we’re really enjoying all of the finches, and we’ve got a few different kinds coming in now too, along with cardinals.
OMD BEARS?!!? And we thought Taffy went crazy over a rabbit or baby bird. Love Dolly
Wow, Bear TV is one show we’ve never seen. Pretty cool, as long as they keep their distance.
Oh yay for bird feeders and oh wow! Look at the bears! My kitties miss their bird feeder. We just don’t have a place for one at this complex.
I hope we never meet bears with Mr. N! He would probably bark at them and try to chase them…
Our beagle Kobi chased one once, when he was in the care of our neighbor. Luckily his leash got caught in some brush not too far from the house and that stopped him. When we came tearing home from work we could hear him down in the woods barking; and the bear was long gone!
We knew Samantha would love bird TV reality shows! Hope it doesn’t attract bears and it was a coincidence! I’ll let cat bro Bert know his tip paid off. He is in charge of the bird TV here at our house.
They haven’t been back yet – not in the yard anyway (it seems like the dogs are still smelling them at times), so I feel pretty safe that it was just a coincidence.
Samantha says to give Bert a big thank you smooch! 🙂
That’s what you call bird TV
Lily & Edward
I am so glad bears aren’t visitors in our neighborhood! The local paper occasionally mentions black bear sightings farther south in the county, but so far they haven’t been up this way as long as I’ve lived in Ohio–I can only imagine how Barley would react to that and I’d probably faint. I’m much happier with Sam’s kind of visitors!
Oh wow…. I was speechless as I saw the bear photo on FB… I always imagine if that would happen here… think the police would get glowing phonelines :o) what do your dogs when they visit the area where the bears walked around?
The bears came up through the woods and stuck to the edge of the yard, so it’s not really a place that I walk the dogs to. But I can imagine I’d never get their noses off the ground, and there would be a lot of leash pulling!