Subject: Fw: On separating bears from bird feeders
Date: Sep 22 09:50:38 2004
From: Bruce Moorhead - bruceb at olypen.com



----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Moorhead" <bruceb at olypen.com>
To: <BOYD6016 at msn.com>; "Grant Hendrickson" <Granth1 at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 9:47 AM
Subject: On separating bears from bird feeders


> Unfortunately, in my experience, once a bear learns that a ready food
> source (here birdseed and suet) is available for the easy taking you
> should expect them to return at some point. About the only way to prevent
> this from occurring is to effectively separate the food source from the
> bear. You can best do this by hanging the feeder(s) and suet well out of
> reach with cords and pulleys from a tree limb or sturdy wooden rack, about
> ten feet above the ground and another six feet or more out from anything
> vertical that they could climb and reach across from to touch the feeder
> and get it swinging, etc.
>
> You can also hedge around a bit perhaps on such prevention schemes. E.g.,
> if you don't want to hang the feeders so high off the ground all the time
> like this, and you haven't had a bear problem for a long while, you might
> keep them hung a bit lower normally. But you can still raise them up again
> readily well out of reach, whenever a bear's around--and thereby not
> reward the bear as much for its efforts. Since it's Fall now and bears are
> avidly eating anything and everything they can find before entering winter
> dens, I'd consider just removing the feeders now for several weeks, and
> then putting them back up, to see if the bear perhaps will not return
> again through the winter at least. But after that...it would be wise to be
> better prepared with more options to head off the next unwanted visitor at
> some point.
>
> Bruce Moorhead
> Port Angeles, WA
> bruceb at olypen.com
> (retired wildlife biologist Olympic N.P.)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Grant Hendrickson" <Granth1 at comcast.net>
> To: <BOYD6016 at msn.com>
> Cc: "tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 6:55 PM
> Subject: Re: bears i n bird feeders
>
>
> Those of us living in Trilogy at Redmond Ridge have been warned about
> four bears raiding bird feeders our here.
>
> Grant Hendrickson
>
>
> On Sep 21, 2004, at 6:16 PM, E.L. BOYD wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> WE have had a big bear knock our feeders down and eat the bird feed. He
>> left some seeds behind in his scat!
>> Any one else ever experience this? How do we keep him from doing it
>> again?
>> WE live in quilcene.
>>
>> Louise
>> rickynicktime at olypen.com
>
>