Bear feeding season

One of our employees had a big visitor to his house last night. A black bear tore down and emptied all of his bird feeders, and tore apart his compost pile. It's a good reminder for anyone who lives in bear country (which covers most of the continental US) that, despite our best efforts, we share the land with widlife on their terms, not ours.

Late fall and early spring are times when bears need lots of extra calories, and it's worth thinking about whether we're inviting them into our lives, or how closely. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation has a nice concise article on Bears & Bird Feeders, and I've linked below a short video of a young bear eating from a birdfeeder.

Notice that the feeder is on the edge of the woods - more likely, on one hand, to attract bears but also safer as it's further from the house.