Cabin company....

[ctom]

Carole and I were at the cabin for a few days and had visitors every day.... or night.



This little guy with the exaggerated brown nose and eye brows was in to dine and say Hi on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday he was back in the evening. On Thursday we had an odd couple show up at 5 in the morning. One was coal black and the other had a beautiful, smooth brown fur coat.



Thursday evening we had another couple bear in, both black with the customary brown muzzle and we think it was a mother and a cub that she hadn't chased off yet. They caught us going for a phone to get a picture and all we'd have captured was their rear ends going south.

Man these guys can pack away sunflower seed. 50 pounds in three days.

[basscatlildave]

Thats Awesome. They are VERY rare down here but I have one on my hunting lease but I only see him on my game camera.

[ctom]

With last winter having been quite mild Minnesota is having plenty of bear issues right now. Mostly bird feeders and garbage cans but they can be a nuisance if people let them be. We do not have any grills that are left uncleaned after being used nor do we have garbage cans. No bird feeders that have seed or suet. We have one tray feeder atop a 12 foot 2-1/2 steel pipe. We store no seed when we leave. Basically the only place the bear find food is in the troughs like the one in the picture. They'll knock the legs off the troughs occasionally, but they go back on easy enough. Kitchen waste goes in a heavy steel dish set out in the yard daily. Windows get covered when we leave, and the doors are heavy so bears can't really get in the cabin, and we've never seen where a bear has tried.

The bears will respond to lawn mowing. Fire up the Deere and mow and we'll have bears that evening. Don't mow and it's a crap shoot if we get any. The nearest neighbors are over a half mile away and they enjoy the critters while we are absent. lol

Here at home if we have a good acorn production year I'll fill a couple 100 pound burlap bags with acorns I rake up from our oak and from oaks on parks around town. Dump 20 pounds of acorns out in the yard and we'll have bear swarming in to get them. We've had some crazy interaction with bears over the years and have only once had one bear that seemed to have attitude, but never did any damage or thtreaten any of use. Oh, the stories I could tell.

[basscatlildave]

He was cool until he tore up my feeder. Rips the motor right off 
Bear at feeder by David Middleton, on Flickr

[ctom]

Oh yes, they're strong animals. If they can see that food is gone, they leave things alone. Its when food is still inside something, and they can smell it, that things go south.

[Apdriver]

https://ring.com/share/fac78690-9030-461e-aa20-737681288274

Here’s a link to video of some cute new arrivals north that a lot of folks never get to see. Nice bear shots, for sure.

[bigjim5589]

Tom, that's very cool!

There's bears here, but I haven't seen any. There was one reported about a mile from me, but even that's not typical around here. There's places they can be and hide and not have much human contact, but I know they can and do roam around too, particularly when mating.

I used to think there may be more of them up towards the mountains, but from what I've read, the SC DNR says the highest concentrations are in a couple of counties next to the county I live in, and over in Horry County, which is where Myrtle Beach is located.

They say there's a good many in Marion National Forest, which is between Georgetown & Charleston SC. That's only about an hour from me.

When I still drove a tractor trailer for Domino's Pizza, we would get up into parts of PA where there was a lot of bears, but still rarely saw them. Sometimes we might see a dark shadow crossing the road at night, but wasn't something we could be sure was a bear. Myself and a partner saw a small one on the side of the road up there one day, that had apparently been hit by a vehicle over in the night. Of course we didn't stop, too dangerous, because of other vehicles and the possibility it was a young bear and it's mother might still be close by.

A friend of mine who lives in the mountains of NC, has posted photos like you have there, of bears coming around his house, which for him is common.

Awhile back, I had the opportunity to buy some bear hides, and when I checked with the DNR about how I could have them transported here legally, I was told that I can't. I wanted to use the hair for tying flies & jigs & selling them, but with the laws in SC, any part of a bear cannot be traded, sold, bought or bartered where it results in a monetary value exchange. So, that ended my idea.

There's a bear hunting season here, and legally taken bears, the tanned hide or parts could be given away by the hunter, but not when it results in a trade for monetary value. Seems harsh, but they very much want to protect them here and I can't say I blame the state for that.

[Fatman]

Had one here in Vermont that decided that a woman's hammock was a nice place to hang out!!