For a few years a very large male bear stopped by my yard to eat grapes and have a drink of water. This year to my surprise a mom stopped by. I scared her when I opened the window to take her picture and she left by the steps I have to the lower yard. About a half hour later she was back but this time with her 3 babies. They ran around like kids, climbed my trees and then ran away after checking out the neighbors garbage cans when a car came by.
Wonderful photos! Do you get many bear visitors?
This time of the year they visit on a regular basis. I guess they need to fatten up for winter. It is strange but they drink from the bird bath, eat some fruit and follow the paths around the yard and never do any damage. I'm just lucky.
I'll say. They are well-behaved guests. :)
Wonderful shots!! I love that they have such good manners.
My brother lives in the Colorado mountains and they have regular bear visitors. Most haven't been too bad (as long as he takes down his hummingbird feeders at night) but the Mom Bear that's been coming around lately has been anything but well-mannered.
My brother lives in the mountains of Colorado too. Well, he is actually down a bit next to them. His good friend lives farther up the mountains. My brother hasn't mentioned any bear sightings but his friend has them, I'm sure. Some of brother's land used to be farmed so it is not heavily wooded like his friend's.
My brother and sister-in-law live at about 9500 feet and it's heavily wooded. Recently his son and his family moved nearby. They're even having more trouble with this mom bear than my brother. She's been quite destructive and a lot of her trouble-making is during the day when no one is home. And, she's extremely intelligent, having foiled many of their attempts to stop her.
For years there was a very large bear that some thought was a grizzly because it was brown and huge, but apparently it was just a large brown-color "black bear". At first it used to climb to my brother's upstairs balcony where he had all of his hummingbird feeders and other bird feeeders. It mostly stopped when my brother started removing the feeders at night. They rarely saw it during the day.
Yep! My bird feeder is 20' off the ground attached to our kitchen window that looks out over the gardens. There is nothing for the bear to grab on to to climb up to the feeder. The baby bear did walk along the sidewalk below and cleaned up all the seeds that had dropped. I can't keep suet outside until December when the bears have settled down for the winter.
These sound like some sweet bears you have! They use your sidewalk and paths and clean up your walkway. I wish some human adults would teach their children to behave as well!
I haven't had a bear in Pueblo West - yet. But I have relatives closer to & in the mountains that have them regularly. Generally, we leave them alone and they leave us alone.
BUT!!
A Mama bear with cubs is always dangerous. If for any reason she feels her cubs are threatened, her good manners will be history, and you will be dealing with the wrath of Mom.
So, please be careful while you enjoy your wildlife!!
That is so true. Cubs are not to be messed with.
According to the wildlife history more attacks come from male bears. Yes, mom's are protective of their babies so I'm careful. They are cute but I'm not looking forward to next year when the three babies are older and still hanging with their mom especially after a long winter nap. There is a stone cave on the other side of the interstate highway from me and that is where the forest rangers tag the bears in the winter. So.............I'm enjoying my yard this year and keeping my fingers crossed for next year.
I forgot here is a picture of a male bear from last November.
Wouldn't want to tangle with that!
Any more bear pics or sightings, mgarr?
I can tell some mornings when the hummingbird feeder is pulled apart or all the water in the bird bath is gone or dumped over but I haven't seen them in the day time for about two weeks.
In some of our Mountain areas, bird feeders must be brought in at night or mounted on a clothes line pulley that raises them up out of reach of bears and other wildlife. Some people do it for practical reasons, but some places it is the law. Leaving out water dishes is okay - and in this dry climate, it attracts plenty of wildlife anyway.
This message was edited Sep 11, 2013 8:55 AM
My bird feeder is on a platform 20' off the ground hanging from my picture window in the kitchen overlooking my woodland garden. The bear ripped the screen off the basement window trying to get it last year. I'm sure no bear can get to it since the male was about 600 lbs. and very large. I hang suet from the thin tree branches with a hook for the woodpeckers. But you know I feel sorry for the bear because we have moved into their territory and messed up everything for them. I'm so tempted sometimes to throw out my old bread or donuts, BUT I know better. P.S the large male was hit by a car last year running away from the garbage bin at the condo apartments.
That's too bad. I know what you mean about their predicament. It is tempting to want to feed them but they certainly can do a lot of damage.
Ohhhh, that's a stick!! I thought the male bear had a leash on at first glance!
Wonderful photos of Momma & her cubbies, next spring Momma will send them out on there own and she will be looking to mate again and have new cubs in Jan, 2015 Check our bear.org
thats where I've learned so much about the beautiful black bears.
Christine
Thanks for the info.
First my wife is a cleaning freak. Just a min. I get on topic. She handles a broom like Bruce Lee handles num chucks. 3 years ago garbage cans rattled on the back deck, thinking coons she grabbed a broom and dressed only in her night gown stepped out to do battle. She is 135# and the bears were easly 225 or more. They havent been back and now I keep an eye on her when she has a broom.
Too funny, ravenh. Gotta watch out for women with brooms. ;)
I'm going to give that idea some thought. :)
We had a family reunion where I was part of the "advance team" setting up for the picnic. A bear showed up and climbed up on one of the picnic tables. My father rushed over and yelled in its face "GET OFF MY CLEAN TABLECLOTH !!". The bear fled in a panic. Afterwards my father admitted it was a bad idea and he only got away with it because it was a young bear. With an older bear, he said he would have been " in the embarrassing position of seeing how fast I could issue a retraction and apology". Dad has passed away now, but the family still talks about that Dad and that poor hapless bear.
This message was edited Dec 17, 2013 2:24 PM
pollen, what a story to tell with such a sweet memory of your Dad.
What a nice memory. :)
It is indeed. :)
