Bear roaming neighbourhood
There is a young bear roaming around the river flood plain below Cliffs Road, just up from Khowhemun Elementary.
Yesterday, around 1 p.m., I heard a knocking sound from outside. I went out on my deck to see what it was — I thought perhaps a bird had bounced off the window, although it didn't sound quite right. As I started across the deck, I heard a huffing noise and a scrabbling sound. I looked towards our Garry oak tree and there was a bear climbing up it — less than 15 feet away. I turned and went back inside.
I let my son, who lives upstairs, know about the bear and got my camera. By this time the bear had stopped climbing and come down to where an osoberry bush was next to the tree, and started eating the berries. In the meantime, my son, who was on a Zoom call to his girlfriend in England, had gone out onto the upper deck and was letting her watch the bear — lots of excitement there as, of course, there are no bears in England.
I think the bear was starting to feel a bit nervous as it moved to the back side of the trunk of the tree and kept peering around at us. Then it tried walking out onto a tree branch away from the house, but figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't a good idea. It then went down the back of the tree and disappeared into the brush. It must have gone down into the forest on the floodplain below us.
After the bear left, we noticed that the birdbath under the tree had been knocked over — presumably that's the noise I heard. My husband talked to the neighbours afterwards to make sure they were aware that there was a bear around, and learned that others had seen the bear over the last week. It doesn't appear to be aggressive, and was just eating bear food and acting like a bear should, so hopefully it will head off into the forest away from town soon.
Jeanne Ross
Duncan