Bearz N the Hood

Yesterday afternoon, Andrea came in the house waving a piece of paper.

“This is the kind of neighborhood we’ve moved into, ‘Ivy Creek Neighborhood’ newsletter.” She announced.

“Was that in our mailbox?” I asked.

“Yep.” Andrea sat down to read it aloud to me, “You should sit down too.” Counsel that made me wonder if it announced that two women, questionable relationship status, had moved into the ‘hood.

Turns out it that the hot topic was a bear roaming the neighborhood. A BEAR! It went through two different trash cans the other night and then made a return appearance on a neighbor’s yard a 6:50 AM. Andrea promptly wheeled our trash can into the garage as the newsletter suggested.

Imagine if I actually HAD gotten my ass out of bed, walked the dogs and ran into a bear?! Georgie would probably have barked at him and incited a riot. He’s a little dumb like that. The newsletter went on to encourage people to join the Facebook group, which we promptly did. I’ve been waving at people from afar rather than introduce myself in this time of social distancing.

“I hope they don’t think we’re stand offish.” I muttered to Andrea one day after waving at the neighbors across the street again. “I’m just respecting social distancing.”

It doesn’t appear the prior owners of our house were members of the Facebook group so maybe we look like an upgrade? Questionable relationship status and all. People on the group appear friendly and keep one another apprised of both neighborhood bear sightings and toilet paper sightings at local stores.

Yesterday, a friend posted an Audubon article on Facebook “Self-Isolation Is Turning Children Into Budding Birders” and thought – hey, same! Andrea brushes Wrigley’s fur and tosses it out the door and onto the deck for the birds. A tufted titmouse has been very appreciative of this.

“Look – he has a Wrigley beard!” Andrea pointed out the bird with a beak full of Wrigley fur, presumably nest material.

Today, Andrea pointed the bird out to Bogart. Bogart low-crawled to the door to watch the bird, his cat body shaking with adrenaline at the thought of no doubt sinking his teeth into this delectable morsel of a bird.

We keep the bird feeders full and they’re always busy. We made hummingbird nectar the and hung that feeder but I haven’t seen a hummingbird. I joined a local Facebook birding group, because clearly this pandemic has aged me approximately 40 years, and have seen other locals reporting hummingbirds at their feeders. I’ll be patient.

(Pic of Bogart by Andrea)