Bird seed and Bears..Not good..

My wife and I are blessed to live in an area of upstate New York that has shopping centers, malls, supermarkets, large cities and small towns within a 30 minute drive of our home. We are further blessed to live where wild animals live. We share our yard with deer, turkeys, rabbits, fox, coyote, grouse, all kinds of beautiful song birds, raccoons, hawks, and, oh, did I mention Black Bears. We are further blessed that we only see the bear or bears "visits" a couple times in the spring. Yes, we've had our share of bird feeders destroyed, but $20 for a replacement feeder is the price I'll gladly pay to live with nature. We have never been put into situation where we have felt danger, although, my wife does get nervous when we have an encounter. A couple of pots and pans banged together or other loud surprising noises usually deters any further visits. With that said, I have also been blessed with some wonderful pictures. Here are a few...

Note swinging bird feeders.

Why do you have them so high?

Ya know I gotta eat too...

Admit it, I am a cutie, right?     

I'll hide behind this big rock.

Aw heck with it, I'm hungry.

This looks good. Smells good too.

Ok, I get the message. See ya later.

But I may be back.

Bottom line is, if you want to live in natures neighborhood, you have to share and be very tolerant and be very aware of what is going on around you...all the time. I've never had a bear visitor that became a problem. Taking the bird feeders down for a few days usually causes the bear to alter his travel patterns.