According to the Wisconsin DNR, the black bear population in the state is currently estimated at around 24,000. Since moving to the Driftless Area five years ago, we’ve seen a bear about once or twice a year, although we’ve had evidence of nighttime visits as well. Here are some of the more memorable encounters.

As I said in my prior #DriftlessThursday post, it’s hard not to become a birder here. Feeding the birds is a lot of fun but keeping the abundant squirrels from eating everything was a challenge for a couple years. My first attempt was a fancy bird feeder on a pole with a “squirrel baffle” under it to keep them from reaching the seeds. It had only been up a few days when one morning I got up to make the coffee and noticed I couldn’t see the bird feeder out the sunroom window. As I shuffled towards the window, a big black furry head peeked in from the side. I stopped short.

“That’s a bear,” I uttered, absolutely in shock.

My husband heard me from the bedroom. “Where’s a bear?”

“About six feet in front of me, looking through the window.”

Well, that got him up in a hurry but the bear, finding me boring or realizing I wasn’t going to come out and offer him more seeds, shuffled off across the driveway. My husband only got a glimpse of its furry bum as it headed back into the woods. Here, however, was the status of the bird feeder:

As you can see, the pole was bent at ground level to 90 degrees. So much for that idea. These days we use a bird feeder that hangs on a shepherd’s hook-style pole with a 24″ baffle on top, but we bring the feeder in each night. The pole is rigged with the “slinky defense” method for detracting squirrels. It works well, but pro tip: Use a few slinkys of different diameters (e.g., junior, regular and giant) over each other as the squirrels can manage to push one up or climb around the rings of one, but not several at once. (Also, lest you think I am a squirrel hater, they get plenty of peanuts on a platform feeder near the ground, conveniently emptying it before any bears come by at night.)

The worst bear visit we had though made quite the bigger mess. Out here, our garbage goes in a dumpster we keep down near the end of the driveway. A service comes once a month to empty it. You might see where I’m going with this. We once had a bear visit overnight, overturn the dumpster, and drag our trash — bag by bag — into the woods across the road. I was away visiting family. leaving my husband to clean it up alone. Thankfully this hasn’t happened again.

Mostly though, the bears just meander through. We’ve seen them strolling on our little lane in broad daylight, and once walking across the yard. I’m not particularly afraid of black bears, attacks are very rare and no one has ever been killed by one in Wisconsin in recorded history. My husband has sent one in the opposite direction just by yelling at it from across the yard. They are timid but deserve respect, of course, and we walk with bear spray just to be safe.