Bird Feeders, Garbage, Bears: Oh My

The Town of Sheffield recently put out a reminder that if you have bird feeders outside, you need to remember to bring them in at night to ensure that pests including bears, raccoons, skunks etc. don't feast on your bird food or damage your bird feeder. Also, if you have pets, this is a very necessary task as a dog or kitty wont fair well against Bubby or Smokey.

In addition, if you put garbage outside, well, you are inviting these furry friends to a food party on your property. Who needs that?

I can speak from personal experience on the garbage front. I used to roll my trash out to the curb the night before trash pickup. No longer am I doing that as I have been burned a couple of times (when will I learn?) My trash was cluttered all over the curb, my driveway, my front yard and a path going through my backyard leading to the woods. It took quite a while to clean up, which I had to do in the early morning hours, and it made me late for work on both occurrences.

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Some  interesting facts that the Town of Sheffield included in their reminder was that black bears can pick up a smell or scent seven (7) times more effectively than a bloodhound. The area inside a black bear's nose (called the nasal mucosa) is 100 times greater than that found in humans, meaning they can smell things you and I can't and they can do this when they are up to three miles away. It's no wonder, a bear broke-in and destroyed my father-in-law's vehicle. Did you catch that story last year? If not, you can check it out right now by going here. In addition, bears remember the location where they found food before and they return to that location to search again.

So do yourself and your pets a favor and bring in your bird feeders at night and wait until trash day (when it's light outside) to put your garbage out. You'll thank yourself guaranteed.