Yesterday evening Erin heard some rattling sounds from the birdfeeder area just outside our front door that made her think there was something more outside than just lots of wind. There was, in fact, though we didn’t get a chance to see the visitor. Here are the clues to the visitor’s identity:
1. The metal post on which we hang our feeders was bent over all the way to the ground.
2. The top of our metal feeder was bent seriously out of shape.
3. We didn’t see the visitor but we did hear it for a good while as it made its leisurely way through the brush near our house (whatever it was didn’t think it needed to leave in a hurry just because there were a couple of humans around). I’ve never heard a wild animal make this much sound before merely by walking. Many a branch and twig got broken along the way.
4. This morning I found a few tracks in the area from which I heard the sounds. The tracks, unfortunately, were in a grassy area so I wasn’t able to get any details about the foot shape and so forth. But I did get some idea about size: roughly 5″ in diameter.
What do you think it was?
Sydney
Alan Schmierer
What do you have in the birdfeeders? (e.g., is it just birdseed, or do you have ones with suet, etc?) I can think of things that would have big paws, but very few of them would be interested in birdfood…
Seems too big for raccoon, but doesn’t seem like the food would interest a coyote/big cat/bear (unless they were interested in the birds…). Bear seems most likely to be noisy of those, though.
Sorry, not much help. -L
There are three feeders on the post (mixed seeds, sunflower seeds, and suet), though I don’t know if all the feeders were full at the time.
We’ve also had raccoons on the feeder before without this level of destruction. As in, the post was strong enough to hold the weight of raccoons.
It’s perhaps also worth noting that the metal feeder is much heavier than the other feeders, but the post was bent over in the opposite direction.
Obviously bigfoot.
How about the chickens – were they in any uproar – are they all still there? Are there any badgers or other heavier animals known to be in the area?
It scares me to say so, but bears aren’t known to walk quietly…and they would be one of few animals that could manhandle the post.
Be on the lookout when you lounge in the hammock!
Yeah, if there’s suet, I’d say a bear is a possibility (noisy, likes gross meat). Do they live around Ithaca?
Bear(s).
A neighbour up the road saw two bears on their porch going after their birdfeeders.
Sydney