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THE 2010 SEASON IS UNDERWAY

9/2/2010 - The black bears are obviously searching for food to fatten up for winter. Over a period of three days we observed two different bears wander across our front patio and driveway. The first sighted was a large male about 250lbs and two days latter a smaller juvenile. Both had eaten apples from two trees in the woods along with the plentiful acorns. Neither seemed to be bothered with human presence as born out by the photos I took on August 25th and 27th. P.J. Boudreaux, 312 Silent Rise Lane

8/9/2010 --- Yikes! Just past 8:30pm as I was working at my desk by the window overlooking a small courtyard near our garage, something big and black caught my eye. I was startled to look out and see a rather large black bear approaching our back door adjacent to where I was working. This is the same little garden area where yesterday afternoon (8/8/10) I witnessed a hawk fly down and kill a songbird. (I have never put out birdseed, but the birds come to get the insects in the flowers.) I watched the bear walk away from the garage and down the driveway to the lower level and into the area of native plants below our backyard. There he foraged for berries while I watched until it got so dark that I could no longer see him. I know he will be back for more food now that he has located this source. It’s okay as long as he doesn’t decide to come inside our house. We had that experience when we lived in the Colorado Rockies, and it is not an experience that I want to revisit. Marjorie Huffine - Home: 828.692.2928 111 Elmridge Drive - Flat Rock, NC 28731-8525

7/20/2010 - At 1p.m. on July 20th we had a surprise visitor on our patio. A bear was watching us through our glass doors having lunch! This is our 3rd experience with actually seeing the bears on our patio.The other times it was after dark. We do not feed the birds & never have since we moved here... advice from the "Carl Sandburg" rangers. They say that birdseed is like "crack" (cocaine) to a bear,they are addicted to it and will keep coming back for more! Once a bear is active during the day,not nocturnal, they are no longer afraid of humans and come to us looking for food. That's when they are dangerous. They are also attracted to the smell of "insect repellent & sun screen" because they associate that smell with humans and where there are humans there is food! As you can see in the video the woman in the golf cart was oblivious to her surroundings,the bear started towards the golf cart until my husband scared him off! People need to be aware of what could be behind the bushes that they drive past! Elizabeth Kenmure Drive( near the pool) haverhold@gmail.com

7/1/2010 On Tuesday morning at about 10:30 a.m. bears were in our back yard at the end of Chaparral Lane - they left immediately when Bob went out on the deck for a better picture. In mid-afternoon there was a deer on the street in front of 424 Chaparral Lane - hopefully the bears will scare the deer away. Madeline Daubert

6/30/2010 Wednesday June 30, 2010. About 8:30 this morning as I was walking up to my mailbox to pick up the morning papers, a very large bear came out of Dan and Cheryl Schindler's yard and crossed Horizon lane about 20 feet from where I was standing. It proceeded across the street and up the hill towards Northland Court. Larry Blair 111 Horizon Lane

6/13/2010 My son and grandson had just come up from working in my lower back yard between 3 and 4'clock they were resting on the tail gate of his truck. He heard a noise in the woods and at that time a dog across the street started barking. He look up and saw a large bear coming out of the woods charging towards them. No cubs present! They ran into the house needless to say quite alarm.My son said he never had seen a bear acting like that unless there were cubs near.He thought the bear could have been sick. Submitted by Frances Tindal 216 Greenleaf Dr

6/5/2010 - A coyote was sighted crossing Greenleaf Drive, mid-way between Kenmure Drive and Overlook Drive, at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2010. Several people reported seeing the animal, who was not in the least bothered by passing cars. It seemed quite at home! Submitted by the Newbolds

5/22/2010 I was surprised to see a bear walking across the front yard @10:30 am. Shouldn't it be sleeping? I was doing yard work along the driveway and heading towards the garage to get a tool when I saw the bear 35' in front of me. It could be the same bear I saw on May 3rd. It's not huge but still twice my size. It looked at me for a minutes then decided to keep going. I froze and breathed a sigh of relief when it continued its walk westward to the next vacant lot. Submitted by Vivian Adams, aka The Dragon Lady, Scenic Drive.

5/3/2010 ~6:27 p.m. I was weeding in the backyard when out of the corner of my eyes I saw something black coming out from the eastern edge of the woods. I looked up and sure enough a LARGE size bear was heading towards me. It's probably a year old or two, not the cute little cubs I saw last June. I half ran and half walked into the garage, praying that it was not following me. I closed the garage door, flew inside the house, looked out the window and the bear was gone. Submitted by Vivian Adams, aka The Dragonlady, Scenic Drive

3/20/2010
We returned home tonight at 8:05 pm to find a mother bear and her two cubs in our neighbors’ driveway. They walked around their backyard for awhile while we waited at our mail box to see what they would do. They began to come toward us so we hopped back in the car but then they went down the hill between the Schroer’s property and ours. We lost sight of the mother but could still see the cubs in the side yard. When we started down the driveway the mother bear was in the center of our driveway. She had walked across our front entrance. When she saw us she started down the stairs to our other side yard. We hopped out of the car very quickly, closed the garage door and went to our screened porch. She was walking down the steps. Shortly, the cubs joined her having come across our front walkway and then down the stairs to join Mama. They stayed in our side yard for a few minutes before walking over to the Garrison’s backyard. Unfortunately it was too dark to get pictures. The cubs are fairly large so probably two years old. Both Mother and cubs seemed to have no fear of us.Jerry and LaVonne McKay