Quote:Along about three in the morning, we both awoke to a noise and the motion sensor light on; I’m thinking that Rocky Raccoon is making his almost nightly visit under the sunflower feeder.
Eloise said that she thought she’d heard clawing, while I thought that Rocky had yanked the chain on the baby swing. A few seconds later, I went to the window only to see a departing rump fading out of range of the light. I commented that it looked more like a baby bear, than the stag male raccoon that normally visits …
Back to la-la land.
Under closer inspection in the morning, we noted a dislodged paver brick from under a deck support pillar and a few minor scratches in the column paint, low enough to be from a bear cub. Our question was that it was awful early in the season for a cub to be alone; they normally stay with the mother quite a while – oh well, possibly an orphan.
Then, I looked higher ........ We did have mama bear along with baby bear; she got at least one claw up, approaching the deck. Kind of hard to see, but there's a hanging feeder up top, just off the hand railing - the object of her affection, we figure. Around front, we discovered the bird feeders were down and smashed.
Bears normally don't start "chowing down" for hibernation until fall - is this an omen of an early winter?
