Brock,

You need to take the feeders down for awhile. Leaving them up endangers the
bear as it encourages him to regard humans and places where humans live as a
food source. Bears that have learned to regard humans as sources of food
are bears that easily can get themselves in trouble and end up having to be
destroyed. If you take the feeders down you'll lose out on watching birds
for a couple of weeks but you might contribute to saving the bear's life.

My mother, has had bears at her feeders outside of Port Townsend. Taking
the feeders down for a short while took care of the problem.

Steve Kimball
Federal Way, WA
sdkimball at earthlink.net

----- Original Message -----
From: Brock Phillips <brockp at microsoft.com>
To: Tweeters (E-mail) <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 2:03 PM
Subject: Black Bears and Bird Feeders


> I live on Cougar Mountain over in Bellevue and have a black bear now
> frequenting my birdfeeders. I suspected it about two weeks ago when I
found
> my pole feeder being ripped out of the ground. At first I thought it was
> kids, but then I saw the bear 3 times this weekend.
>
> It is not very large and looks as if his paw is kind of hurt. He eats the
> sunflower seeds that I have out for the squirrels. I called PAWS and the
> Department of Fish and Wildlife out of concern that he may be hurt. They
> were no help and said just to wait him out.
>
> Anyone here have any ideas? I really don't want to take down our
> birdfeeders, but I am sure our condo assoc. is going to freak.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Brock Phillips
> Bellevue, WA
> brockp at microsoft.com
>
>