You glance out your window on one of those marvelous April days that makes it clear spring will indeed come, only to find your feeders hanging askew or smashed on the ground and your metal suet holders looking like wrung-out dishcloths. Like an increasing number of households in New Hampshire, you have been visited by a black bear. They are hungry and capable of sniffing out edibles within a two-mile radius.
Bird seed is a temptation they just can t resist.
Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken to avoid the havoc they bring. An occasional bear will feed during the day. In that case all feeders should be removed for at least a two-week period by which time, it is hoped, the bear will have moved on and found another food source. Should these measures fail to discourage bears from your area, the only way to continue to feed the birds is by hanging a feeder in the middle of a line rigged between trees or posts and ten feet above the ground or high up on the end of a tree branch that cannot support a bear s weight. In both cases the use of a pulley system will make filling the feeder easier.