**** A Black Knight Story On A Black Night ****

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.