The visitor

[Vanisle_BC]

We've lived here 34 years and never had a bear 'til now although we knew they were around. This chap has found our grape vine and largely demolished it together with the plum tree it had invaded, plus a large amount of the stair & trellis work at the end of our small barn. He's been here every day for a week but there are still some high grapes so he'll be back.

Growing grapes was nice but we're too old for this kind of nonsense. As soon as the weather turns and these guys go into hibernation we'll be digging out the plant. Nature wins again !

[PaulF]

Very cool photo but a little scary. In the last few years to join our bobcats the stories of mountain lions in the area concerns some folks but they are very allusive. The stories of black bears roaming up from the Missouri wilderness continues but no sightings yet. Closest report is from 70 miles south of us along the Missouri River, so it is inevitable they will get here before long. Eastern Nebraska people are not ready for bears. Growing up in Oregon in grade school we learned how to behave around bears and cougars. I remember mountain lions coming into our yard at the edge of Lakeview, Oregon on several occasions. My mother would come flying out the back door and yell at them to "get out of here" and we couldn't play in the yard for a while.

It was great fun then, but would be pretty scary now. We learned not to mess with bears. Hope you can stay safe.

[applestar]

Wow

I love seeing wildlife in the garden but this is a bit extreme.

A lot harder to keep out or defy than smaller or less aggressive marauders.

…Will digging out the grapes be the end of it? Won’t the bear remember that there was somethings good to eat in your garden and come looking for what else to find earlier in the year?

What would you need to discourage? An electric fence perimeter? …what a headache…

ps I agree — impressive photo

[Vanisle_BC]

I share the hope that getting rid of the grapes will mean Bruin loses interest in our yard but I don't know ... Our 3/4 acre is too overgrown & neglected for easy construction of an electric fence. Outside & between the parts we use it's a jungle.

The photo makes me look more courageous than I am - a zoom shot from about 20 feet away. When he dropped/fell out of the tree, luckily he ran away, not towards me. The most important thing I've read since is: Never stand up to a bear who has no clear escape route!

ETA: replaced the air horn that was sold with the sailboat. C'mon bear!

[digitS']

PaulF, you were not far from where I was as a kid.

We lived most of that time just outside of Medford Oregon. A farm surrounded by other acres of farm fields and orchards, we weren't likely to see too much in the way of wildlife. Well, not cougars and bears.

Bears were sometimes seen along roads but would quickly disappear. Bounties could still be had for shooting a coyote.

We did some deer hunting and such but the very real concern was happening on a rattlesnake. We learned not to step over things casually and to "look where you are going!"

Steve