There's evidence of quite a few black bears in our neck of the woods. We've had bird feeders taken out. My mother in law had one visiting her back yard last summer and was more concerned about getting the pictures than her safety. (Rumor has it that when our Minnesota neighbors have a problem bear, they trap it and drop it off on our side of the bridge. It should be noted that we have no evidence this is true.) However, I hadn't sighted many personally, until the last couple weeks.
A few weeks ago, I was in town at a friends and stepped out onto their front steps to indulge the nicotene habit. It was probably 10 pm. Next to their driveway, about 30 feet from where I stood, they have a line of trees. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like large branches snapping and thought to myself, "If that's a dog, it must be big!"
Out of the tree line and onto the street stepped Momma bear, with three cubs in tow behind her. They trotted off across the street into the woods. When I reported the sighting to my hosts they mentioned their garbage cans had been scavenged recently. I think we discovered the culprits.
Today, the Girl and I were driving to town when another black bear crossed the road in front of us.
Unfortunately, I've gotten out of the habit of carrying the camera with me. Drat!
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