On Wednesday morning, Jennifer Beck looked out her window to see a very unusual house guest snacking on birdseed out of a feeder on her porch: A 4-foot tall black bear.
“The thing that was a little alarming about this one was that when I shouted at him, he just turned and gave me this look,” said Beck, a member of the Wilton Conservation Commission. “It took clapping and jumping up and down and lurching toward him before he meandered into the woods, in no hurry whatsoever.”
Beck said that she has spotted black bear in the neighborhood before, a bigger one who she thinks may be “Papa Bear” to the one that visited her porch on Wednesday.
This one, she said, appeared to be an adolescent, about two years old or so.
“Male bears are very territorial. This young one will have to go out and find a territory of its own,” said Beck.
New Hampshire Fish and Game recommends that residents take in their feeders at the start of spring, advising birds have plenty of food and feeders can be a bear attraction.
It is illegal to feed bears in New Hampshire.
Purposeful and even inadvertent feeding though improper garbage storage of leaving out food sources such as feeders that creates the likelihood of human injury or property damage can result in fines if the attractant is not removed following a request to do so from a Conservation Officer.
Beck has since emptied her bird feeder to discourage hungry bears.
“Hopefully I scared him off,” she said.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.