10th Anniversary Exhibition, Sept 9 - Oct 2.
Mary Close — New Work, Oct 7 - 30
Gallery Hours - Thursday - Monday 11 to 5
The Gallery is located in the Milton Barn at 513 Maple St.
For more info call 567-5015 or visit newartsgallery.com.
Hi all,
I’ll make this short. Janet has spoken on the last post and most info is there. I just got off the phone with Ken Schneider, the State bear guy, about our crashed feeder from yesterday. Nice fella, but he says until we stop feeding the birds, we’re going to have the bears. He suggested a regional (all Milton) approach. All of us take in our feeders, keep our garbage locked away until trash day and don’t leave food out for our animals.
He puts up his feeders in November and takes them down in March. The birds stay and are fed for the winter. The bears are in hibernation and no bother (unless we have another warm winter like last year).
Bottom line, if all the food sources disappear for a few weeks, the bears will move on.
Dick
Well, apparently the word got out about the Sawmill/Headquarters Monday Night Buffet and now you’ll be happy to know there is also a Friday Morning Breakfast session, as evidenced by Mr. Green Ear Tags himself in the photo above. He showed up at our house at 8 a.m. this morning – just after John had put out this feeder that we only put out in the daytime. We scared him away and he went north.
We received a message from Kathy and Gary Lang with photos showing this same bear was at their house (south of us) at lunch time. This is the same bear that Kim Gauvain had photographed eating her garbage.
The main thing is that the bears are out foraging for all kinds of food to pack on the pounds before they go into hibernation. This particular bear doesn’t seem to be the least bit afraid of humans, so it will continue to raid the neighborhood. I reported the sighting to the DEP this morning, but I got the impression they won’t do anything about it unless we file a formal complaint about it.
I will check with our friend at the DEP tomorrow and find out when they consider a bear’s behavior bad enough to do something about it. At least one Milton resident feels that something dangerous might happen if we don’t nip it in the bud. I will let you all know what I find out.
In the meantime, I would suggest no bird feeders, and don’t put your garbage out until the early morning, if possible. Keep garbage cans inside closed garage doors, and don’t leave pet food outdoors. We certainly don’t want to encourage more visits from our hungry black furry friends. They have a right to live in Milton, too, but we just want them to stay in the woods and not in our yards.
Have a good holiday weekend.
Janet
7:15 p.m. Yeah, 20 minutes ago. We’re in the hot tub doing our thing, clothed in a smile and sipping a glass of Rhine, when Holly, who has been on the phone almost continuously since we got home from the hospital (another story for another day) screams, “Oh my God! A bear!”
Out lumbers this huge black bear with dirt on it snout and a quizzical smile. Okay, so I made that up. The rest is true.
Like I say, we’re in the tub and suddenly we are presented with options. Stay and watch or beat feet! We elect to stay, for awhile. Neat thought.
The bear comes out onto my maintenance shed apron, chooses to walk the thin line between the shed and the Wisteria that seldom blooms (seen it happen once in 16 years) and boldly walks where who knows how many bears have walked before - unbeknownst to us. This time it’s not unbeknownst.
Holly, a lover of beauty who finds a bear in our yard quite the thrilling thing, says, “Oh how beautiful.” She continues to talk to whoever’s on the other end and shares her conversaton with me and the other party.
Now, this is a big one and amazingly, it gets bigger and bigger as it ambles fearlessly toward us. I had taken the feeders in only minutes before, so it was not to get the meal of birdseed it wanted. It crossed my mind that these black bears are herbiverous. I was checking to see what kind of a plant it might think I am, when Holly reported that it was now altogether too close (about 30 feet and closing) and option number two might be a wise plan.
I stood up ( I know, it looked ridiculous). The bear stopped and when Holly also stood, it apparently thought we’d ganged up on it, and happily, it beat feet.
Somehow we didn’t mind that it plowed through our northwest garden and was gone.
I had mentioned to Janet recently that I hoped people who are plagued with bears (or at least sight them) would call the State and report the sighting.
In my view they are beautiful creatures, but they are becoming too numerous and I refuse to think of a 400 pound anything as CUTE!
Anyone out there have a plan? Your blog comments are welcome.
Dick and Holly
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