Garden visitors..

[torbanite]

I haven't seen too many catfish since I got over here, but there is no shortage of wildlife..

I heard a stramash outside last night & looked out the window in time to see the next door neighbours wheelie bin being kicked down the street. Once they'd done with that, the hooligans set about rearranging my front garden..

I wasn't brave enough to open the door and yell at them to get off my lawn.

Now I know why folks round here carry guns..

Bear (cub?) playing with sprinkler hose

Bear spectating (mother?)

Bear in tree

[sidguppy]

that is so cool, real bears in the yard!

wish we had bears.......I know a bunch of neighborhoods that can use bears, right now
beats chasing junks and streetscum out of the yard or from the frontporch with a baseball bat any day.

the fact that in Netherlands you're not allowed to carry a gun (unless you're a cop or a soldier) will make it all the more funny.

don't shoot em; we want your bears!

[Birger]

Yipes...bears outside, happens all the time...mama bear with cub...serious business stay clear, things can turn from cute to nasty real fast.

Here, proper bear bins for garbage and not allowing things like bird feeders helps keep them uninterested in coming to town.

They do still come in though...in Banff, the next town over, a grizz recently killed an Elk right on someones front yard, the Elk use the town for protection so they come in after them.

Birger

[torbanite]

that is so cool, real bears in the yard!

don't shoot em; we want your bears!

Yeah.. I thought it was cool as well. After I'd changed my underwear. ;)

I'm not planning on shooting them (I think they are protected anyway). They are supposed to be scared of humans but you can't help thinking what if one got in the house/went after me.

...in Banff, the next town over, a grizz recently killed an Elk right on someones front yard, the Elk use the town for protection so they come in after them.

Fortunately these are black bears - no grizzlies here.. or I really wouild have been bricking myself! Even so, they are biiig beasts.

At least they didn't trash my car, as happened to someone near here recently!

Bear gets into car for peanut butter and jelly sandwich, honks horn, goes on short joyride

[andywoolloo]

wow..incredible. once in a blue moon we have a teenager wander down from the foothills. truly amazing.

[jac]

Wow amazing I would be scared stiff tho

Anything wild that comes in our garden are birds, butterflies and hedgehogs Notting to be scared of there

I've seen on tv that bears can come in your home with all consequences That is terrifying!! The feeling of not being save in your own home, bbrrrrrr don't even like thinking about it

[Bas Pels]

Bears are nice

In a zoo, or on television. But being honest, I'm so happy our ancestors arranged them to disappear from the most of europe

Bears around would help me decide not to live there

@ guns - I wonder whether the guns they carry are any help against that

[Birger]

I've seen on tv that bears can come in your home with all consequences That is terrifying!!

Only usually happens if you are not careful and leave things around to attract them, does not happen that often but it does happen, the blacks can be both curious and unpredictable, a grizz on the other-hand, it is not hard to tell what it is thinking, luckily they tend to keep their distance more.

It is quite surprising to come rushing out of your home to come face to face with a bear and what has happened every time with me is both parties going opposite directions as fast as they can...it is quite funny after the fact. In other cases when surprised they sometimes will give a whack or worse and then run.
It is an eye opener to see just how fast these things can move though.

Birger

[Birger]

Bears are nice

In a zoo, or on television. But being honest, I'm so happy our ancestors arranged them to disappear from the most of europe

Bears around would help me decide not to live there

@ guns - I wonder whether the guns they carry are any help against that

As for the gun situation, if there are people still shooting at bears they know there is a danger and tend to be more careful...in the parks or anywhere they do not get shot at, they get to doing anything they like and know they can get away with it....they now do shoot at them with flashbangs and have bear dogs to chase and a few other techniques to keep the bears cautious.

I will admit, I do get tired of having to always be on the lookout, bears and cougars.
They are awesome animals though.

Birger

[crkinney]

Bear tips: grizzly bear like the food dead and rotted and they like to kill it their self. Black bear like their food alive when they eat it. Play dead for a grizz and run like hell for a black.
Some folks say to ware a bell and carry bear spray in bear contry. Check their scat [bear poop] If you see a bell init or it smells like bear spray run

[torbanite]

I will admit, I do get tired of having to always be on the lookout, bears and cougars.
They are awesome animals though.

I've not met a Cougar/Mountain Lion, but friends & colleagues have drilled me on what to do if I do as they are common in this area.

I've seen Raccoons in the garden (yard) as well, destructive blighters by all accounts. The neighbours tell me I can expect Coyote as well.
Then there are the rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, ...

Check their scat [bear poop] If you see a bell init or it smells like bear spray run

No bells in the poop here, bits of half digested fruit & stuff mainly. Guess I may live to post another day.

[Birger]

Then there are the rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, ...

Now those scare me...

Coyotes erggg!!them and I do not get along ever since one had my son at six years old backed up against a building with him swinging a box at it to keep it away, dangerous pests.

[Mike_Noren]

It's interesting that european brown bear and american brown bear are so different wrt behavior. Bear maulings here follow a very set pattern: a moose hunters dog picks a fight with a bear, gets scared and runs back to the hunter pursued by the bear, the frightened hunter fires and wounds the bear, which attacks. All bear maulings here in Sweden (except one*) have followed this pattern.

* a depressed, drunk, man who naked and unarmed tried to hand-wrestle a brown bear who was fighting his hunting dog. It's classified as a bear attack, but I'd say it's more like suicide-by-bear.

[jac]

I am sooooo glad to live in Holland. No bears, cougars, snakes, lynxs or creepy crawlies like toxic spiders, ants or centepeeds and scorpions or what so ever, no huricanes or other large tropical storms, no earth quakes or volcano activity
Pffff, how do you do it?? Living whit that kind of danger every day..... Deep respect to you who have to every day!!

Don't get me wrong!! I really love nature and like to enjoy and discover as much as possible. But on my own terms....no surprises please and certainly not as the hunted....

[Mike_Noren]

I think you're mis-estimating risk, none of those animals are any where near as dangerous as humans, which there are plenty of in Holland...

[MatsP]

I have friends who live in the "sticks" in Texas. They have Coyotes on their land, and I'd happily wander around there. Rattlesnakes are OK as long as you keep your whits about you and don't go looking for trouble (e.g. looking in cracks and crevices).

They also have turtles and cattle on the land - both of which are very nice to see.

The closest I've been to a bear is a few meters - but I was in a car, the bear outside it... I also saw a grizzly at a LONG distance - probably about a kilometer or so away. Fine animal, wouldn't mind being a bit closer. Never seen a bear in Sweden. Elks (moose) and deer I've seen a few of.

--
Mats

[bronzefry]

A bear entered a woman's house last week because her children forgot to close the sliding door on the deck. The Maine black bear, visiting Massachusetts, followed the the scent into the kitchen, found not just the cheddar cheese Goldfish crackers the kids left on the counter, but also the actual goldfish on the counter in a bowl(I was screaming at the television at this point). The bear left the house with, yes, a stuffed bear and bag of Goldfish crackers(later found in the yard, empty, along with torn stuffed bear). One goldfish was killed in the incident. The others in the bowl were fine, if you can call living in a bowl "fine."

Last night, we had several visitors, including a family of raccoons and deer. Footprints and scat everywhere. Something actually unwrapped cheese crackers from the package! The wrappers were all over the driveway. We had bungee cords on the barrel lids. This didn't deter. We watched squirrels gnaw and scratch through the plastic lids until there were large holes. But, it's fun watching the fox, deer, etc. passing through the yard at 5 am., going to the swamp. If I can't sleep, I'll get up and watch the parade.
Amanda

[Birger]

It's interesting that european brown bear and american brown bear are so different wrt behavior. Bear maulings here follow a very set pattern: a moose hunters dog picks a fight with a bear, gets scared and runs back to the hunter pursued by the bear, the frightened hunter fires and wounds the bear, which attacks. All bear maulings here in Sweden (except one*) have followed this pattern.

* a depressed, drunk, man who naked and unarmed tried to hand-wrestle a brown bear who was fighting his hunting dog. It's classified as a bear attack, but I'd say it's more like suicide-by-bear.

Bears often get "put down" due to a humans stupidity which the bear sees an opportunity or is just plain protecting itself, but then somehow it is considered the bears fault, I wont get into the silly things I have seen or heard as I could write a book. It is sad though.

[kruseman]

I am sooooo glad to live in Holland. No bears, cougars, snakes, lynxs or creepy crawlies like toxic spiders, ants or centepeeds and scorpions or what so ever

Seeing the rare old world swallowtailbutterfly in my little garden twice (!) last week was very exciting to me. That was before seeing this topic....
Man, how I wish to have bears and the like back in our country! It has been a while since they got extinct here.

(on a side note , Jac: All spiders are toxic )

[sidguppy]

jac wrote:I am sooooo glad to live in Holland. No bears, cougars, snakes, lynxs or creepy crawlies like toxic spiders, ants or centepeeds and scorpions or what so ever

i'll trade you all the nasty vicious bad tempered criminal suspicious little small minded fundamalistic nasty creepy perverted inbred yahoos we have in Holland for a nice population of bears, cougars, snakes, scorpions and coyotes ANYTIME!

ever since I came to know Man I really started to appreciate the Animal Kingdom

plenty of places here where going about on your own without a weapon and/or some really good experience in martial arts is an exercise in stupidity or just plain a run for a Darwin Award

especially the last 10 years or so quite a number of places here in our small country are no-go area's.

unless you relish getting your head stoved in, your wife or daughters raped, your kids molested and you kicked to death by a bunch of drug riddled teenage trash.

no, you got it all wrong
the nastiest and by far THE most dangerous creature on this planet is Homo Sapiens.
pure undiluted viciousness and completely untrustworthy.

I'll bet you live somewhere in a small village out there in the middle of nowhere, Jac;
you obviously haven't been in the large cities of late.

[torbanite]

I am sooooo glad to live in Holland. No bears, cougars, snakes, lynxs or creepy crawlies like toxic spiders, ants or centepeeds and scorpions or what so ever, no huricanes or other large tropical storms, no earth quakes or volcano activity

As a recently arrived European, I can say I don't feel like my life is in mortal danger every time I venture out the door. Maybe I'm just naive & tomorrow's headlines will read "Scotsman eaten by $(whatever)" .

The weather can be a bit bonkers - more so out to the east on the plains. Here in the shadow of the Rockies there aren't many tornadoes.

At least here we are comfortably above sea level

[Birger]

As a recently arrived European, I can say I don't feel like my life is in mortal danger every time I venture out the door. Maybe I'm just naive & tomorrow's headlines will read "Scotsman eaten by $(whatever)" .

No, it is not all that bad compared to big city problems...there are many many pluses, have you moved permanently?

Birger

[torbanite]

.there are many many pluses, have you moved permanently?
Birger

Definitely many pluses..
As to permanence.. who knows.. I wouldn't be the first Scotsman to fetch up in God's country

[torbanite]

The bears paid a visit again this afternoon. I managed to make a little video of them resting under a tree.

After a few minutes, they wandered off up the hill and into the next valley.

Don't know if it is the same lot as last week - the cubs look darker.

[andywoolloo]

incredible, and scary, mothers and cubs, scary.

i thought this was beautiful

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... feast.html

[torbanite]

i thought this was beautiful

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... feast.html

OK, 20 grizzlies in one place.. now that is scary..

A couple of still pictures taken at the same time as the video above..

Black bear with two cubs

Black bear with two cubs

The yard of my house is a bit of a wilderness at the back. There are a few well worn paths through the long grass & I'm starting to realize that these weren't made by human feet.

[Carp37]

Wow, that is so cool... I'd also rather trade wildlife for people any time, although a work colleague of my dad's was a bit perturbed when an alligator took a carp off his hook when fishing in the States.

[torbanite]

The resident Magpies were doing more squawking than usual earlier... Guess they don't care for bears resting in the shade of their tree.

Mother bear with cub

Mother bear with cub

Mother bear

[andywoolloo]

they are beautiful

[Jools]

... and I got quite excited when we found a hedgehog in the garden!

Jools