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Posts Tagged ‘Bears’

3D42FC64-C75B-4FA9-8BC8-F7A9E8EFD90CWe live in the woods and often get visitors of the wild kind. As I ease back into blogging I thought I would take the easy way out this time and share some footage of our various visitors.  Some, like the bear are very recent, other pics are from a while ago.

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These wee ones are in a Burning Bush directly outside our bedroom window.  Denyce and I were watching and trying to figure out what type of birds they are, one  fell out of the nest.   I ran outside found the little dude (I don’t know if it is male, female or gender fluid, nor do I care) and placed him/her/them back into the nest.  While mom and dad watched from a nearby branch.  I came running back into the house only for Denyce to tell me he/she/them fell back out.  Once again I ran outside, found the little bugger and placed him/her/them (how exhausting) back into the nest.  When I got back into the house Denyce asks, “Was it the same one?”   I guess she saw the dumbfounded look on my face because she followed up with, “Well maybe it had some dirt on it.”  The Good news, it has been a few days and everybody is still where they should be.  Incase you you are wondering they are Grey Catbirds.

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For a few years we had a white squirrel running around, very rare in this area and no, not an Albino,  Clary barks at them all.  Denyce figures he was a grey squirrel and Clary just frightened the grey out of him.  We called him Pyr-a-Squirrel as he is the same color as Clary.  All the neighbors knew about him and we all kept an eye out.  We haven’t seen any around in about two years now.   And yes, we know he is male, he was not shy about standing up and stretching to get to the bird feeders.

Denyce was texting with a neighbor when suddenly the neighbors texts, “Hey there is a bear crossing my driveway heading your way.” So I jump up camera in hand and get a couple of shots of this guy. He/she/they started running once he/she/they spotted us.  He/she/them was about 4 ft at the shoulder.  Denyce and I raced through the house to see if we could get a better look at the Black Bear and we opened the porch door just as the bear stopped at the end of the porch.  The bear took one look at us and had a look on it’s face of “AHHHHHHHH………HUMANS!!!!!!”  His response was this photo below.

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In the last pic that is actually its butt in the air. Mother Nature is quite amazing.

img_0312While hard to tell from this picture. Boris is actually the size of my palm.  But what she lacks in size is made up in her presence.  There have been several discussions that surround Boris including the debate on selling the house and not disclosing her presence to potential buyers, to burning the place down.   When we called the Penn State bug people, (yes, I know a spider is not a bug) they told us not to worry as she is quite common and keeps other spiders away, (not really). I think the spider guy was trying to be re-assuring when he told us we never have to worry about walking into her web, Boris doesn’t make a web as She is a hunting spider! We we figured out Boris was a she when his one day my wife came home and Borisella was sitting on an egg sack.  Yes, an egg sack, we now have many of these spiders running about.  *sigh*

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It is spring here in Happy Valley. We have more than mice, wasps and bears. This robin’s nest is on the railing of our front deck. They hatched this morning and it now seems to be dinner time.

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In my last sermon to you we discussed bears. But this week has proved that there are worse beasts out there than the bears. There are wasps. Not the regular run of the mill outdoor wasps. No, we are talking about the dreaded indoor wasps. That’s right we have indoor wasps. The first one I found buzzing around the window. No problem probably followed us through the door when we got home. I trapped him with a paper towel and set him free. The second wasp? eh, he too may have entered when the door was open. He was a little more aggressive and I had to catch him with a cup and show him the door.

The third. well I was watching the television when I heard my wife, whom we know runs yelling barefoot at agitated bears, screaming like a little girl “A Wasp, Another Wasp!” I thought for sure she had been stung to elicit such a response. But no, she was not wearing her contacts and she picked up what she thought was some cat food off the counter but it turned out to be a fuzzy buzzing wasp. Both woman and wasp survived the ordeal. But I started to get the inkling that we had a problem.

The next few wasps were found in our bedroom. At least they are easy to find. Just watch the cats when they start leaping at the walls and ceiling we pretty much know Where to find the wasps. So far nobody has been stung and no wasps have met their end. We have determined that they must be coming from the light fixture in our bathroom.

At least we know what my next project will bee.

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Think you have trouble with mice? We have black bears. Years ago my wife heard the neighbors dog barking in his yard. Max was not much of a barker, but when he did that baritone voice of his rattled windows and shook the doors

My wife looked outside and there was Max on one side of his chain link fence arguing with the bear on the other side. The fence in question is waist high, not exactly an obstacle for dog or bear. Both were posturing waiting for the other to make the first move.

My wife ran outside yelling at the bear. While black bears are not particularly nice, they will back away from people if given the chance. But can we count on that? Do we know what the bear thinks? Max was facing a fight he could not win and my wife was not about to let that happen. So there my wife went out the door, in bare feet, hands waving in the air yelling at the top of her lungs at an already agitated bear. When I heard the story I knew I would put my money on my wife and it appears so would the bear. With an arrogant huff the bear slowly meandered back into the woods.

There was also the bear who raided our bird feeders. We have a cast iron shepherds hook that holds the feeders. Rather than stand up and take the food this lazy bear bent the Shepherds hook in half. I was able to bend it back with an industrial clamp and a lot of cursing. The really annoying part came later when I ventured to the top of the driveway and saw our garbage strewn across the street. Along with the garbage of several neighbors. That was a fun time.

Then there was the time I was washing dishes and glanced out the window only to see a large bear wandering in our yard with two cubs in tow. My wife looked out but couldn’t see the bear. “No, not near the woods, right here under the window” The look on her face was priceless when she looked down and there was the bear looking up at her.

One evening last fall I stepped onto our front porch to find a little bear running up and down tree trunks. We watched him for a while then we heard something much larger rustling in the leaves just behind the garage. With the reminder that momma bear wasn’t far behind we retired back into the house letting the bears do whatever it is bears do.

A few weeks ago I was taking the dog for her final walk of the evening, we got all the way to the end of the porch when we came face to face with the largest bear I’ve yet to come across. We all took a good long look at each other before slowly backing away. The bear headed off into the woods the dog and I slipped back into the house where I told my wife that we were going to hold off on our walk for a little while to give the gigantic bear a few moments to leave the area. At that moment she got a text from our neighbor trying to warn us about the very large bear that just walked through their fence and was heading our way.

And just in case you are wondering we also have mice.

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