Sunday, December 01, 2013

Bears in the Birdfeeder?

our tipped feeder

Opening the drapes this morning, we found our birdfeeder pole tipped over.  Now it's got a 30 pound block at it's base and it DOES NOT tip over by itself or in 50 knot winds.  What happened?
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Maybe a bored teen came into our yard and tipped it over?  Not likely as the other feeder pole wasn't tipped, the feeder wasn't broken, the gate was closed and no graffiti.
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Maybe a bear?  Something big had to do this!  Can they climb the fence?
They do like birdseed.  ..

not our feeder
But here on the peninsula our biggest mammal (except humans) is deer.  They too like bird seed but they are pretty small and probably couldn't do much more than ruin the little individual feeders.  Can they jump the fence?
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Hmm!
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We had noticed a gang of 3 raccoons climbing a neighbors tree last week.  They like bird seed too.....  
not our feeder either

These are grown raccoons but shouldn't weigh much more than 20 lbs.....but 3 20lb raccoons hanging off one of the arms of the birdfeeder pole might upset it? 
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It's a stretch but our best guess.  Probably scared them!