This has been a record best year for spotting wildlife in my backyard. First it was an invasion of Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins, then the Lincoln's Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Towhee, record White-crowned Sparrows and a list of other migratory birds, then a dozen Mallards and American Black Ducks that have been here every day since April, a Great Blue Heron of all unexpected backyard birds, and now…a black bear. Early this morning a black bear, which has been roaming my neighborhood for at least a week now, paid my backyard a visit and destroyed all my bird feeders (except for my squirrel proof feeder, which I now know is bear proof!). As a gift, the bear left behind a big pile o' poop!
 
I live in suburbia with neighbors on all four sides of me, and with my backyard completely surrounded by fencing and hedging that ranges from 5 to 15 feet tall, I never expected to see a bear in my yard. It was not even on my radar of possibilities! But that said, I live on the fringes of suburbia; directly across the street from me, less than 200 feet away, is a 300 acre conservation area of mixed old growth forest and abandoned fields, which is directly connected to Stony Swamp and the infinite wilds of Ottawa, so that a bear has been in my neighborhood was not so much a surprise. But in my yard??!! The bear has also been spotted further in my neighborhood.
 
I originally thought, because of the tracks left behind in my gardens, that the bear had a cub, but now that I've seen what the bear looks like, it appears to be a "teenage" male.