Still bearing the bear

At least he couldn't bend the pole. I presume he just climbed up it. (I saw an online video of a bear climbing a pole.) After climbing the pole he apparently put his weight on the horizontal one-inch pipe and it came out of the coupling. Messed up the threads. We can re-thread it and screw it on farther. But that won't keep him from destroying the feeder. He bent it horribly. I hammered it into shape as best I could. If the pipe hadn't come apart at the coupling, he would probably have bent it. That would have been harder to fix.

My latest plan is to raise the bucket another foot and grease the pole. Maybe put an unwelcome mat underneath. Those have nails sticking up that bears don't like. With my luck, he'll probably remove the mat. If that doesn't work, then I'll stop feeding in Oct-Nov.

I feel confident that this next bird is an Allen's Hummingbird, but need a tail spread shot to be positive. I'm trying. Took over 100 pics of it today. Will try again tomorrow.

Pine Siskins and Pink-side form of Dark-eyed Junco at bird bath.