Bears

When we walked to school on Friday, the day after Halloween, we headed across the sports field as we usually do, but we noticed that there were no kids hanging around playing. Instead, the gym teacher, who everyone calls Coach, was out there rounding people up and making them enter the school through the back. "There's a bear in the neighborhood," I heard Coach saying as we got closer. "Playground's closed. Go in through this door."

Well, it's better than a crazed gunman, or a mountain lion, but a bear is kind of a problem too. Not that black bears are interested in eating or attacking small children, but you never know. If the bear has been hanging around for a while and has gotten territorial... Anyway, we obeyed Coach and went in the back. It was one of my days to volunteer in the library and then the classroom, so I went ahead and did that. When I leave the boos' classroom, around 9:30 or so, they're usually headed outside for recess, but not today. "Indoor recess," their teacher announced, and in fact the school was on lockdown all day.

Home again, I did some editing work, and then my sister called and we talked for a while. I was standing in the kitchen, talking on the cordless phone and gazing at the backyard through the kitchen window, when a chickadee landed on the (empty) bird feeder. "Oh, a chickadee," I said to my sister. "I haven't seen one in ages."

We went on talking, and a few minutes later a flicker landed on the (still empty) bird feeder. "Oh, a flicker," I said. They're a common bird around here, but I love them dearly, and I hadn't seen one on the feeder all summer. Then, moments later, a blue jay landed on the (yep, still empty) feeder. (The flicker had moved to the fence.) I couldn't believe this! "A blue jay!" Three great birds landing, one after another, on my empty feeder. That feeder hasn't had seed in it for months!

I bought a bag of seed when we first moved back here, filled the feeder once or twice, and then stopped. In the last couple of months I've thought about filling it, but intentionally haven't, because in late summer the bears start needing to eat a LOT, and you don't want to be tempting them to come in your yard. The bears are especially hungry this year because the floods destroyed a lot of their regular food.

"Oh, what the heck!" I said, in a fit of complete insanity. "I'm going to fill the feeder." So I did. I took the container out there, and poured seed all over the feeder, not minding that it was also spilling all over the ground. And then I went on about my business, getting some more work done, going to the grocery store, picking up the kids from school, etc., etc. I forgot about the feeder -- and in fact I never did see another bird on it.

Nor will I, ever again. I don't have a good "before" picture of my feeder, but this is what it looks like now.

Can you see a sort of pipe sticking out of the ground, in the upper left portion of the photo? That used to stand straight up. It's what the tray (middle of photo) and the little house (to the right of the tray) used to sit on. The bear actually visited us at least twice, because in the early evening Rocket Boy noticed that the feeder was leaning sideways. The bear came back later in the night and tore the whole thing to bits.

So now (a) I don't have a bird feeder, (b) I fed a bear, which is a huge no-no in this town, and (c) that bear is going to keep coming back to see if we've put out any more food for it. I am such an idiot.

The really weird part of the whole thing is those three beautiful birds that I saw on Friday afternoon. I realize this will make me sound mentally ill, but it almost felt as though those birds were sent by the bear to tease me into putting out food. I did not see a bird at the feeder ALL SUMMER. Even when it had seed in it, I was just getting squirrels.

Oh well. Since I don't have a bird feeder anymore, I can't feed any more birds or bears.

And we're all afraid to go out in the dark.