June 11, 2009

Yogi the Bear is finally out of hibernation!

I've been griping about the late arrival of summer in everything from my Twitter site to the lists I belong to. Well this morning, over coffee, my husband suddenly jumped up and yelled, "BEAR!"

He ran for the camera and I ran to the back door to make sure the dogs were all inside. Sure enough, there in the seasonal creek that runs past the back door was our local black bear.

Normally we see these guys in April or May after the "real" winter is over. They wake up and are immediately hungry. Our first year here in the UP we woke up one morning to find all of our bird feeders and suet feeders either torn to pieces on the ground or gone completely! After asking around, we figured out that it was probably a bear. When they wake up, the first thing they eat is something green. Then they go for suet, sunflower seeds, corn or anything else they can find to satisfy them until the berries start to come in.

Black Bears aren't particularly vicious unless they have cubs with them, so a loud noise is usually enough to scare them off. So Michael opened the door and yelled, "BANG!"

Funny as this sounds, it usually works. I don't think the bears realize how big and scary they are! But if you get caught in the woods and happen to come face to face with one of the furry ones, first, remember that they are NOT Teddy Bears!!! Second, DO NOT RUN!! If you act like prey, they will perceive you as prey and act accordingly by chasing. And trust me when I tell you, that you will probably NOT be able to outrun them. Raise your arms above your head and make as much noise as you can, while slowly backing away. As I said, they are really big cowards unless it is a she-bear with cubs. They will usually lumber off.

Here's a picture of Yogi. That blur that you see is him deciding that he was NOT leaving without his lunch. He took one swipe at the suet feeder and knocked it off the hook, grabbed it in his mouth and ran back over the creek and into the woods.

I'm running a special for the month of June on the website. Anyone who puts "YOGI" in the comments section of the order form will get 20% OFF!
Now, aren't you glad you read the blog!!?
See you next time!
Karen

2 comments:

Michele said...

Karen...how cool! Reminds me of vacations at the lake in northern Wisconsin....I would still be a little less apt to run outside though....

Tina Sams said...

Yeah... not sure I want to see if I can scare a bear away - but thanks for the info :-).