Destruction greeted me on a recent morning.  As always, I paused to check on the birds feeding at our five stations on the living room deck.  The pole with hooks attached to the rail was gone.  One of the feeders lay smashed and empty on the deck.  The hanger with hook had been broken off.

Outside on the deck, I peered over the railing.  The pole lay where it had been pulled down.  Beside it were the other two feeders.  The new blue mesh feeder was intact, but the green metal hopper’s handle was snapped off.

I ran inside and called my husband to see the damage.  It was then we noticed the claw? tooth? gashes in the wooden rail.

When we went down to pick up the equipment, we found that the gutter was hanging down, apparently pulled off by our visitor while it climbed up to the deck.

It’s a peculiar feeling to have had a large marauder so close to us.  Only a glass door and a small lock separate the living room from the deck.  Those gashes in the railing are ominous.  Now that the bear knows of this food source, it could return.

We may repair the feeders, replace the pole and continue to set out feed for the birds, but we’ll be sure to bring in the feeding stations at night.