Bear with me for awhile.

Shortly after noon today, we had another summer visitor show up at the Aerie. Yesterday it was the first hummingbird, one of the smallest visitors, today it was one of the largest as a black bear came sauntering out of the woods at about 12:30. I didn’t get any pictures of him at that time and he spooked quickly when I stepped out onto the porch. But the lure of sunflower seeds and suet in the bird feeders had him coming back in less than an hour. This time both Terry and I grabbed our cameras. As she shot through the sewing room window—screens and all—I went out the front door and edged around the corner of the house to get some snaps of our woodland neighbor.

It’s probably the same bear that was here last year. I’m guessing it’s a two year old that has spent its first solo winter and is looking for some fattening up.


Last year he bent one of the poles to reach the sunflower and suet and also put a hole in the hummingbird feeder to get to the sugar water.




There’s supposed to be sunflower seeds on the tray, but it was empty when he got here. Maybe that’s why he knocked it over.


He finally caught on to my presence on the deck and started heading into the woods. When I shouted, “Hey you!” he stopped to look at me one last time and then tore off at a run up the slope.

Despite being shot through the glass and screen, Terry’s pictures came out very good. Her windo was much closer to the bear than I was.








I guess we’ll be bringing the feeders in at night for a while.