I have something travelling through my yard at night tearing all my birdfeeders down. Has even knocked a couple of fences down now. Thought at first it was a raccon but with the fences knocked down I am starting to think it was a bear. Anyway as fast as I put the feeders back up they come back down. The only thing I had left was one of those socks full of niger seed and it even ate that the other night. Have left them empty for the last couple of days but feel bad for the little birds that are around and don't want to loose them so will probably fill them again today and hope what ever it is has moved on. That is if I can even find the feeders - left two of them sitting empty out there and see they are gone now. This has been going on all month and is expensive to feed something other than the birds. The only thing I have seen around is deer and I hear the coyotes at night but don't think either one of them would do the damage I have or at least they have not bothered anything before. It is very frustrating!
No Hope
Sounds like a bear to me to actually knock down a fence. Can you bring in the feeders at night and put them back out in the morning for the birds? Birds don't feed at night anyway, but maybe bears and raccoons prefer the cover of darkness to come that close to your home. Don't leave any food out at night and maybe whatever it is will move on to a better feeding ground somewhere else ...
Are there any ferral hogs where you are? If your post was from Texas, the first suspect would be ferral hogs. They are a terrible problem here even in cities. They are 4-legged vandals.
DNP
If it can knock fences down, it really has to be a bear. Or someone with a tractor. Ditto to take the feeders in at night.
Resin
I would bet my last dime on the bear. They will feed in the daytime too but usually in secluded areas. Black bears get used to people easily. They go where their nose points them. They have been known to be denned up under a porch up against the warm foundation of surburban homes. They will stay where they are as long as food is available. In the Northeast they can range further than ten miles in a single day. They have been known to arrive weekly over a thirty mile area one day ahead of the garbage pick up schedules.
Best advise is to not feed them. We are obliged by law to take down bird feeders if a bear is attracted to our area by bird feeders. Once notified feeders are only permitted 8AM to 4PM. Then we must rig our stations so that we can still feed our birds without to much effort.
Yeah my guess is a bear too - I know I had mother and 2 cubs here in the spring. Good news is they should be bedding down for the winter soon.
I will take the feeders in at night - I have been doing that for awhile with the suet feeder so will just add the seed feeder to the list.
And no there is no other food around, I don't even put out garbage till the morning of garbage day. There is an apple tree in the yard that a bear came to last fall and cleaned up all the apples but didn't bother the feeders then. Also dug up a huge wasp nest last year. This is the first year I have had trouble with the feeders.
I will take them in at night for the next little while - hate to see the birds suffer because of a darn bear!
There might be a food shortage for the bear if it is getting into your bird feeders. Maybe there are more bears than food right now. If you take the feeders down at sunset (or even earlier) and put them back up every morning after sunrise, the birds shouldn't suffer. Or do you have birds coming to the feeder after dark? Just be careful removing the feeders as the bear may come earlier if it's really hungry.
I can say that I am very relieved I only have squirrels, raccoons, and rats to deal with concerning my bird feeder. I can't imagine a bear! That would certainly be a lot bigger and more dangerous to deal with!
No food shortage. The suckers come to town and quickly get lazy. There are lots of different foods available in the back yards and cover too. They are quite well taken care of and they stay because of the free lunch. We have been harvesting between two and three hundred a year just in our county. That has not been enough. The hunting season has been extended again this year in an effort to thin the bear population. As many as there are I have hunted fifty years each day that was available and have never harvested one, nor has any male hunter in our family. The hunt is male bonding and meat on the table if someone gets lucky. We hunt with twenty five guys. Our average yearly harvest is two bear. Yearling cub will weigh about a hundred pounds. The parents both about two hundred pounds with a state record weight being nearly eight hundred pounds. Healthy females will drop two to four cubs each spring.
About half of those fifty years we have had them feeding in our back yard. We had to remove the bird feeders until they den up for the winter. I swear they rob the fast food dumpsters, take the straws, sumerge in our river and suck air through straws for the week of bear season. That has never been documented however they have to go somewhere.
ROTFLMBO!!! I can just picture those bears underwater with straws! LOL!
Several years ago we had a female bear den up right under our hunting camp. The season was three days before Thanksgiving that year. All twenty five hunters walked past her hiding place going to the outhouse. Only three of the twenty five knew of her den under the cabin. When we were in our kitchen we were less than three feet from her nest. She was in complete relaxed deep sleep not to be concerned or aware of our presence. We do not think she batted an eye. There was evidence of her getting up to void her needs during Februrary. She went back under the cabin and gave birth to three cubs. We stayed out of camp until she moved her family out into the mountains. She was sighted only once all year. None of her family was harvested in the following year's hunt. She and her three cubs were ear tagged. The cubs were independent by the time she went into rutt the following late summer.
Just a thought, the huge flock of starlings which covered the backyard this morning are much tamer (& smaller of course) than bears. We just have deer, beaver & coyotes.
So I took the birdfeeders in last night and bright and early brought them back out this morning - the chickadees and nuthatches were waiting - chattering and talking to me as if to say thankyou. It was a really nice way to start my day!
We could tell anyone within ten minutes when our Blue Jays will show up for their handfull of peanuts.
docgip - Sounds like you have some very brave bears in your area! Quite comical that one was hibernating right near your hunting camp! Too funny! Glad you let her live to birth some cubs!
growum - Glad to hear taking the feeders in at night worked like a charm! My birds wait on the power line for me to come out every morning and fill their feeder! Then they all fight to be the first one there to get the best pickin's! LOL!
My Blue Jays are not only noisey but they crash land into the hanging feeder I have. Scaring all the other birds away from the feeder. I think it's a tactic they use to intimidate the other birds. They are like the bullies of the bird neighborhood here. Though the hawk is the most dangerous one! That bird stalks the doves and squirrels here. And the snakes! (sigh) And they are competing with the owls for other rodents along with the bobcat mama and her 3 cubs! I don't see hardly any rats these days! LOL! I bet they've been turned into a tasty meal for all the neighborhood predators! :-) At least we don't have bears here ... I hope! (gulp)