Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Ping and Thud

It was about 9:30 at night, H and I were listening to a discussion of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) that’s sweeping across the globe and is impacting our society in ways we are only beginning to understand – and may affect the two of us profoundly since, at our ages, we’re both in a high risk group.

From the kitchen we heard a combination ping and thud that we’ve occasionally heard in past springs. “Bear!” we both thought, since that’s the sound produced when a bear pulls down the feeder, suspended on a wire, outside the kitchen window. We went to the window, and there in the light of the outside floodlight, was a moderately large male black bear licking up the sunflower seeds that had been in the feeder –



He must have heard us talking or perhaps had seen us peering out the window, for he rose and gradually walked uphill into the dark of the night.

The next morning, on the side of the house there was a smeared muddy footprint left by our visitor –




The camera traps on the hill above the house captured videos of the bear in his journey –


So much for leaving the feeder out at night, the feeder will be spending the night in the garage while the bear spends its evenings searching elsewhere for a meal.

In this time of COVID-19 (coronavirus) I've been fortunate to be able to get out in forest and field where there is seldom another person to be seen and it’s easy to self-isolate. Unfortunately, this crisis will almost certainly continue for quite some time and probably get even worse; I’ll try to keep getting outside and bringing you accounts and photographs of the great outdoors.

All the best to you and yours, wherever you may be stay healthy.


7 comments:

  1. He is a beauty. I also remove my bird feeders for night times. Except in my case it's to keep raccoons at bay. It's lovely posts like this that help distract from the alarming current pandemic. Thanks Woody.

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  2. An interesting nightime visitor to say the least!

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  3. Nature is our hope and our refuge. While we hunker down, she gets on with her business and even heals.

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  4. *wow* a bear under the window, great recording and video. There is no such thing with me.
    I wish you all the best and stay healthy, Elke

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  5. Hello.
    What a great bear!
    Take care of yourself!

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  6. Hello,

    Loved the black bear video. We had to put away our feeders for a few weeks, the black bear visited our deck and knocked over a trash can that I keep my bird seed in. Take care! Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Enjoy your day, happy weekend!

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  7. I'm so glad you can share the outdoors with all of us. So far we can get out in the forest too and usually not see anyone. When we lived in the mts of NC we had to bring our feeders in every night. The bears LOVED the hummingbird sweet nectar! Take care of yourself! Stay healthy!

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Thanks for visiting "In Forest and Field" and thank you especially for commenting. It's always interesting to see other peoples' thoughts. Unfortunately, due to spam and trolls (not the kind living beneath bridges), comments must now be approved before being posted.

Woody