Up Close And Personal With Wildlife

If you recall the other day I mentioned in my latest post that a bear came into the yard and trashed some of our reserve hives.  Well, he came back this morning!   I first took a photo through the porch window, then quietly opened the back door and went out into the yard.   I took a couple other photos of the bear.  I wanted to get closer, but was afraid of scaring him off!  I guess 100 feet away was close enough anyway.  Based on the one photo of the bear standing over a fence post, we estimate that he stood about 6 1/2 feet tall.  And he probably weighed close to 450 lbs.   He was a HUGE bear!  I think it's kind of neat to be able to see wildlife this close.  When you live in the woods like we do, you have to expect to see all kinds of animals.  But - we will definitely have to find another spot to store our reserve hives.  We do have a very powerful electric fence on the new beehives, and the bear must know this because he never went anywhere close to the new hives.   After I got my photos, Harold scared the bear off with a couple of gun shots in the air.  The bear went into the woods and came around the other side of the house and down the road.   I could have gotten a great picture of him in the front yard, but my camera batteries died!  Grrrr...

My first picture taken through the porch window.

I managed to get the bear to look at me!

By now the bear was getting nervous about me being there and stood up to act defensively.  The post he is standing behind is a little over 5 feet tall, so this bear must be about 6 1/2 feet tall.

All this bear business makes for an exciting start to the day!