Bears and bird feeders

**"Jeff Lowenfels" j*@gardener.com**

In the interest of good journalism and because of a promise I made, let me
strongly disagree with the advice for people in Bear country to take their
feeders in afternoons etc. It is NOT a good idea to feed birds  day or night
during the summer if you have bears. Especially if you use sunflower seeds.
Bears love the fat.

I have 12 pictures of a bear trying to get into a squirrel proof
feeder...one of those green jobbies and climb a tree to get out on a limb to
get a summer feeder I hung n a birch tree. This of a bear who had been
tranqualized and driven 160 miles away .One picture has the bear's face
right smack on the screen of an open window. Too scary to be a screen saver
;).....Do not feed birds during the summer if you have bear problems. Only
during hibernation.

The promise to pass on this warning came because I left seed in a bucket and
had a bear come to the house. So did Fish and Game and the paper I write
for. When it hit the papers that the garden columnist. left seed out, I
became a convert worker for Fish and Game and the bears. It isn't fair to
them. They  become trained and then they become a problem  and then they are
put down.

Besides, birds have plenty of food during the summer. A bird bath wo rks
wonders in attracting birds. And, you can always go for humming bird
feeders...

Cheers,

Jeff aLaska

P.S. when I get a moment I will load those pictures into the system. May
take me a week or so!

_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they will
show up at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos