Hi again, Courtney,

I've given this some more thought...If you're sad about the hummers, why not 
get a few hanging plants that they will find just as rewarding?  Fuchsias, 
for instance?  And plant some annuals they'd like, or plant bee balm?  I 
have bee balm all around my house for this reason.   I have ONE hummer 
feeder and if I ever find it "visited" by a bear, I'll remove it for the 
season.  It would decrease my sightings of the birds, but I can't bear the 
thought of seeing a bear being shot because I've attracted it to my space.

The folks that owned my house before me had a bear on the deck once (and 
then they took away the food source).  I have lived here for seven years 
now.  I've seen plenty of signs of bear  (large apple-filled scat in the 
driveway) and even saw a bear catch a fawn (about thirty feet away from my 
house, mid day in July), but I've never had issues with them in the yard. 
My house is located very close to a trail used by all sorts of wildlife as 
they move from the mountains to the valleys.  I believe bear are close by 
all the time.

The bears are especially desperate this spring.  They went into their dens 
without the reserves they needed due to low mast of beeches, oaks, etc.
The bear you saw may have been eating ants.  So the chances of your problem 
continuing, even if you put the feeders up higher, is pretty great.  I've 
seen incredible pictures of bears climbing houses to get to food.

My opinion may seem a bit severe, but it is really serious when bears get 
accustomed to being around people.....

Good luck!

Ali

-----Original Message----- 
From: Courtney Appleyard
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 9:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VTBIRD] bear problem

With a heavy (crushed actually) heart, I guess I have to take down my 
feeders for a while.   He's never hit them (except for the hummingbird 
feeder the 1st night)  but my bear has been here 4 times this week, most 
recently at 7:30pm when he came up and snooped around on my deck and sat on 
the ground 10 feet from my house snacking on leaves.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom for breaking the cycle?

I was thinking I might hang some feeders from my 2nd floor windows to keep 
my hummingbirds and bluebirds - but maybe even that is stupid?

Just such a bad/crucial time to have to take them down, with so many nesting 
pairs coming in, populations being established, etc.
Was thinking I'd take them down until June 1st and then reevaluate?

:(

Courtney in Manchester