Got a message from a bird photographer early this morning, with the attached photo.
What it means is that a bear outwitted the electical bear zapper. So Lee and I rushed down there (from Alpine) to see what we could do. I decided I didn't want the zapper anymore. It's barely esthetically tolerable if it works, and it was functioning properly, as far as Lee could tell, when he left a few days ago.
The bear had ripped the zapper off the feeder and turned it off, maybe accidentally. Possibly the ground wire wasn't working right, who knows. At any rate, Lee removed the zapper and plugged the hole the broken off mounting pipe had left in the feeder. Then he drove stakes deep into the ground that he fastened to the feeder base so a bear can't swivel the feeder. Afterwards, we didn't get picky about how we arranged rocks around it. I'm sure a bear will soon rearrange them!
From studying past videos, it seems the bear can't get seed out without twisting the feeder around and around. If the bear is able to jerk the anchors loose, as surely it will, Lee plans to weld spikes to the hinge. That's what the bear is using for leverage to turn the feeder. Just because we've failed for over 20 years, doesn't mean we won't win. We're getting closer. It doesn't appear, that for all the destruction the bear wreaked, that it actually got seed from the feeder. (When we electrified the feeder, we made the base harder to swivel) Less left to destroy now. Yup, we're winning!
1 comment:
Yup you sure are ;) ! You two and the bear are really amazing! Go team Ohl!
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