My neighbor saw him this morning from her kitchen window as he wandered through the meadow beside our house. From her vantage point she sees bear pretty regular. At least one a year... I'm envious. In 32 years I've seen only three, not very regular.
Did you know there are estimated to be 4,600 to 6000 black bear living in Vermont? And with most of them residing in the center spine of the Green Mountains (right where we live), you'd think we'd see them often. Being naturally shy, bears have no desire to mingle with us humans. Unless, it's early spring and they have waken from their dens ravenous after a long winter nap. That makes all the protein rich black oil sunflower seeds spilling from the feeders scattered throughout the valley so worth the risk of encountering the likes of us. However, it's time to the take the feeders down and remove the temptation. No matter how much I'd like to see him, he is safer in the woods high up in the hills where he belongs.
"In a world older and more complete than ours, animals move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."
