A morning fuss from Woody (our Golden retriever) had me looking from the deck (what was he barking so vigorously about?)
It turned out to be a young (presumably) male black bear, quite small, who was helping himself to the black oil sunflower seeds in the feeder.
According to our neighborhood list-serve, he must have just been wandering through our end of the neighborhood. We're close to downtown, so don't normally get visits.
This is just the third bear we've seen in 7+ years. They've all involved the bird feeder -- so no seeds for a while... He was so small, I just let him eat the seeds, without doing too much shooing away.
It turned out to be a young (presumably) male black bear, quite small, who was helping himself to the black oil sunflower seeds in the feeder.
According to our neighborhood list-serve, he must have just been wandering through our end of the neighborhood. We're close to downtown, so don't normally get visits.
This is just the third bear we've seen in 7+ years. They've all involved the bird feeder -- so no seeds for a while... He was so small, I just let him eat the seeds, without doing too much shooing away.