I had to stop feeding the birds this summer. It was all Ursala’s fault! I noticed that my feeders were not only being emptied, but they ended up on the ground almost every night. At first, I thought it was Bandit and her boys, my resident raccoon thugs. At times they get a bit rambunctious, and will knock down my feeders, but this was getting out of hand! Then, I discovered the REAL culprit.

Ursala is a young bear, about 120 pounds. I found her one morning rolling my triple tube feeder around on the forest floor like a circus bear with a ball. Then, she sat down, picked it up like a box of cereal, and tossed the seed down her throat! Fortunately for me, I have been doing a lot of reading and research lately, so I knew exactly what to do (and what NOT to do). By the way, if you live in bear territory, I highly recommend “Outwitting Bears” by Gary Brown. It’s sort of a “Bears for Dummies”, or in my case, for Blondes.

Armed with knowledge and a Nikon, I fired off a shot. The click of the shutter got her attention, and she looked right at me. Now, the book says, “don’t look directly at the bear”. Right! STEP ONE…make myself look big (finally, chocolate has an upside!). STEP TWO...yell and make lots of noise (child rearing was good practice). STEP THREE…chase the bear away! Okay, here’s a mental picture for you: Middle aged woman, pleasingly plump (don’t go there!), running through the woods in her floppy bunny slippers yelling, “Shoo, bear” at the top of her lungs. Needless to say, I didn’t refill the feeders, and I removed all but one lone safflower seed station that was hanging high up on the branch of a sapling. This is a favorite of my titmice, and I didn’t think a bear Ursala’s size would climb something so puny. Of course, I was wrong. The next day, I heard the unmistakable sound of cracking wood and then metal hitting stone. Repeat STEP ONE…

This time, she was more reluctant to leave, and less afraid of this pale creature who had the nerve to try to keep her away from her meal. I suddenly had visions of Ursala Minor returning next spring as Ursala Major with two cubs, Hershey and Godiva! One thing the books didn’t have to tell me is that you NEVER want a Mama Bear anywhere near you or your property. So this time, I not only removed the feeders, but all other “attractants” as well, such as the charcoal grill, fertilizers, etc. Weeks went by, and there was no sign of Ursala. Mission accomplished. By then, however, the birds had begun to protest.

At first, it was just annoying little titters and angry tweets (at 5 AM). Pretty soon, they began carrying little signs “Will Chirp for Food”. I felt bad, but what could I do? Finally, I realized that I could relocate the Smorgasbird to my second floor window box, and it would be too high for Ursala to reach (and Bandit, too, as it turns out). So, all is well. The birds are happy. The bear is gone. No raccoon raiding. And, even the squirrels couldn’t figure out how to reach the feeders.

Well, for about fifteen minutes.

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* For a photo of “Ursala”, see the Wildlife section of the Gallery.