The biggest bird feeder problem

This quick snapshot, taken through our kitchen window a year or two back, sees the black bear climbing down from our raised deck with the suet feeder. We later found the feeder in the woods – mangled beyond hope.

Nothing like this is ever seen in Britain, of course. The last bear was killed in Britain many hundreds of years ago. Last year in Pennsylvania, which is about the size of England, 3,458 bears were "harvested" - the second highest number ever.

Sights like this tell us that it's time to take the feeders in. Encouraging bears by leaving out bird feeders is illegal in our state, so as soon as the feeders are hit in the spring we take them in. The birds, of course, are not happy but they probably have a few more weeks of free food before the bears come out of hibernation.