As we pulled up to the garage yesterday after an absense of 10 days I noticed the security alarm from my owl box was on top of the garbage can. When we left for Virginia it was in the owl box where it signaled the receiver in the house to beep everytime a squirrel got into the box.
There was only one explanation, bear mischief. So we walked around the house and sure enough, there was the evidence. Bruin had torn open my experimental owl box.
Before we left I had shut down the operation and removed the camera trap, but the lingering smell of sunflower seeds in the box was enough to tempt a bear.
A few minutes later my ever vigilant neighbor Richard came put-putting down the driveway on his motor scooter. The bear's break-in happened a couple nights ago, he reported, and he had put the alarm on the garbage can out of the rain.
So the squirrel trials come to an end. I'll fix the owl box, but it's time to put it in storage. Now it's time to begin searching for water shrews and red tree mice.
Awwwwwwwwwww... I'm sorry!
ReplyDeleteAnd am comforted by the fact I know you will not run out and shoot the bear! (Some of my neighbors would...)
I never heard of a Water Shrew, so of course I Googled it. Thank you again for your wonderfully entertaining and educational site.
Hi, just stumbled on your blog and really find it interesting. Will visit again.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not going to shoot this blogworthy bear. It gives me too much subject matter to punish, plus challenging projects, and a few expenses to boot (which I don't mind).
ReplyDeleteYour squirrel trials were an entertaining read. Funny, how a bear can end such a project. If you were to continue that squirrel project, I wonder if it would be futile now that a bear has entered the story?
ReplyDeleteBAD bear ;-)
ReplyDeleteyou may have seen this already,
ReplyDeletebut here...
http://www.owlcam.com/owls07_08/squrl_slide.wmv
anyway from the infamous owlcam.com site