A resident of Courtice in Clarington seems to have an affinity for bears as she says she has been visited by the species at least twice in the past few months – once before winter, and again just a few days.
Tanee Brown lives in the Courtice-Bowmanville area between Hancock and Maple Grove Road, just north of Highway 2.
Tanee is not sure about a third visit as she did not see the visitor, but points to circumstantial evidence.
“On April 12th, the weather was warm and I decided to put the humming bird feeder out and filled the bird bath with water. When I opened the living room drapes on Wednesday (April 13) morning, the humming bird feeder was on the ground destroyed and the bird bath was knocked over. Also a seed feeder that we still had up, was completely gone. I still haven’t found it anywhere on the property,” recalls Tanee.
She said she had a bear visit our front door in October, and just figured that is what was here again.
Looking for food
However, the same evening at about 7pm, Tanee saw a car stop at her driveway. “Wondering what the heck they were doing, I was watching them, but they drove off.
“That’s when I see the bear coming across the road out of the ditch,” says Tanee. “The bear came right into our front yard and was looking in the spot where the humming bird feeder was.”
She knocked on the window to make a noise and it trotted off a little bit. Tanee grabbed her phone and started recording when the bear decided to come back onto the property.
“This time, I banged on the screen door and it ran to the road, went along the ditch and then back onto our property. I grabbed a spoon and pot and went outside to scare it. Thankfully, it ran away, but stayed on our property and went into the bush. I have not seen the bear or any sign of it again since,” says Tanee.
Capable of anything
“At first I was a bit scared. I mean here is this skinny, obviously hungry bear walking into your yard. It’s capable of anything…it’s a bear, it does what it wants lol,” she adds.
“We had a bear in October too, right to the front door, so I got a bit traumatized from that. I grew up in this house and never had bears here. Deer, turkeys skunks, rabbits, raccoons, opossums – this is new for us,” says Tanee.
They have probably always been around but we kinda feel that the new highway and all that construction just got them moving in different areas for food, she adds.