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Hi Bluebirders.
After the fiasco with the Chickadee and my pair changing boxes and laying 5 beautiful eggs, they hatched a week ago. This morning I looked out and the door on the box was wide open and the nest on the ground. I got dressed and grabbed my coffee and went out, not a speck of baby birds anywhere and no real damage to the box, just a small bear print on the front of the door. The bear was smart enough to turn the latch, or lucky enough to get it open without breaking it.
The good news is that Mama and Papa are fine and they were even investigating the original box which I moved to a different spot, plus the box the bear got to.
Hopefully another try will be successful.
ConnieYou really need to do something about that bear. Sorry to hear about your loss of this batch, but thankful that the adult pair survived and are looking to start again.
Good luck ConnieDavid
Stafford, VASure glad the adults survived – and I thought HOSP were bad – are you allowed to shoot a bear if it is destroying your property? We have deer which have done damage to our property but are never able to catch them in the act but would be allowed to shoot them even out of season if destroying property here in Missouri. Good luck.
Oh my gosh….what can you do about a bear coming into your yard. We don’t have bears around here. Wondering if you bring all your mealworms/birdseed in for awhile, maybe he will forget where you live. So sorry about your hatchlings. I sure hope things change for the better. Best of luck….
Judy-Michigan
Oh David I wish it were that simple. I cannot shoot a bear because it damaged a mealworm feeder nor because it wiped out a clutch of Bluebirds. If it were threatening one of my dogs, or one of us I could shoot it. I am going to call the Game Commission tomorrow and see if they can set a trap.
In the meantime we have raised the birdhouse to about 7 feet so that should help.
ConnieHi Carol, if the bear was causing a lot of damage, we could call the game commission and they would try to trap it and might give us permission to shot it. I have to point out the bear is showing up at night, so we never see him. We are thinking of a trail camera.
I too am grateful the adults made it and maybe with the 23 degree temps, high winds and severe white outs they may not have made it anyway. Our nephews wife had 4 ready to fledge and they froze to death. It has been an awful Spring, and they are calling for snow again here this week. Hope the Bluebirding is going good out your way.
ConnieGin, this is true. We have bears in this area but they have never damaged a nest box or it’s residents till now.
ConnieHi Judy, we do not have anything out to attract the bear. We take the mealworm feeder down every night since the bear damaged it. This just happens to be the territory he travels and I know of no way to deter him from doing that. I will see what the game warden says tomorrow. Thanks for the luck wishes.
ConnieConnie, I hope the game warden is able to help you. Now that you are taking the mealworm/feeders in at night will help too. Also, like that you moved the bluebird house up higher. Happy your pair is still hanging out. That’s a good sign. Trail camera is a great idea….just so you can see how big this bear is. Warmer weather might help too…..mr bear can eat vegetation. 🌱🥬🥦🥕🥒 Hang in there!
Where is SPRING?
Judy-MichiganConnie, I appreciate your thoughts about the bear – it is very hard to take matters in your own hands when something is being damaged. I felt the same way about deer that were destroying my newly planted trees, bushes, flowers, etc. But like you say this damage was always done at night or very early morning so we were never able to catch them, just saw their footprints & damage. We finally had to put up a high fence around our vegetable garden because they were eating everything there, also. None of the home remedy products worked for us. BUT we have never had to deal with a bear, thank goodness. Good luck with the game warden. P.S. You would think because you take down the feeder at night the bear would give up.
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