The Ursus Americanus
Last Spring we experienced
some unwelcome bird feeder damages – not then a total wipe-out or great
deal of damage – yet significant enough damage to make that Tractor
Supply trip to purchase a larger catch-and-release trap seen on a previous trip. Hopes were then high the guilty party critter was not the
skunk seen wondering around our property foraging for something to
eat. The first night a large female raccoon was caught in the new trap. Next night
noted nothing was trapped, but our wildlife camera snapped a couple shots
of two smaller raccoon – suspects no doubt looking for their
relocated mom. Caught them both, one each over the next two nights –
all were relocated to a nicely wooded area several miles up the road.
We suspect the younger coons found their mom.
Six days ago our bird
feeding area was wiped out. Three woodpecker suet feeders found
destroyed and a fourth was missing, ripped from the tree to which it
was strongly wired. All three of the black sunflower seed feeders were down
from their mounts, one of these a larger one-gallon capacity version
was missing. A property search did not locate this bird feeder. In
total the damages last week seemed significantly more than that
caused by a family of raccoon.
Sooooooo, put out the
wildlife camera last Friday evening pointing toward the bird feeding
station in hopes to image that offending culprit. Note: for
prospective, the mid-sized catch-and-release trap dimensions are
11+inches x 10+inches x 32+inches. Only three blurred shots were
captured, two stern shots (an obvious male culprit), and one as the
suspect began standing on rears to go for the bird feeders strung
between two metal fence poles.
Could not believe our
eyes – here are those images shot early Saturday morning, April 15,
2017 (a little after 12 midnight):
Any attempts claiming this is DJ in a rented black bear (Ursus Americanus) suit shall be met with a swift unlike 😎 . Obviously, our wildlife camera model does a poor job at night-time imaging of swift moving targets. More effort over the past few nights to shoot some clearer images showing a return visit have not succeeded. Hopefully this Black Knight culprit went on his way and shall not return.
