WOODBRIDGE — Pease Road resident John Bachelder stood in front of the kitchen sink Sunday morning.
“It looked like someone was walking down the driveway,” Bahelder said.
But then the bear made a sharp 90-degree turn in the direction Bahelder said had recently strewn the lawn with bird seed. After eating every bite of the bird’s seed, the bear followed its path and disappeared into the woods behind the barn in Bahelder’s backyard.
“I watched him for a while and he had a really mellow vibe,” Bahelder said. “He was just passing by and he stopped to get some bird seed on the way. I didn’t really care.”
Some residents, including Bachelder, have posted their bear encounters on Facebook and want to share their wildlife experiences with others in the area.
Kristen Fitzgerald said her husband got a ring doorbell notification for someone in the driveway of their home when she was at work. After receiving her second warning, Fitzgerald said her husband looked outside and saw a black bear running into the woods.
Since the couple live near Beecher Road Elementary School, Fitzgerald said her husband reported the sighting to the resource officer at Beecher’s school, and the school prohibited the children from going outside for breaks. I got
Fitzgerald had posted a screenshot from his doorbell camera of a bear sniffing the stairs outside his home. She moved the bird feeder in the first floor window to the second floor so the bears wouldn’t hang around the house.
Jessica Moffo, Animal Control Officer at Woodbridge, said her office has received several recent bear sightings, but each incident poses a risk or warrants a response. Said it was nothing.
“We usually try to track where they are, but if the situation is not dangerous, we leave it alone,” Moffo said. “We’re trying to educate the public on what to do,” she added, including not feeding or approaching animals.
Wildlife biologist Jason Hawley, who studies bears at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Conservation, said it’s not uncommon to see bears later in the year. begin returning to their burrows in early November. However, male bears without cubs to care for may roam for food from dens.
Ironically, many bears retired to their dens earlier this year due to a shortage of acorns, likely caused by a summer drought, and limited food resources, Hawley said. In years when acorn production is plentiful, some male bears may even go outside to fatten up later in the year, the biologist added.
“They really rely on acorns as a food source in the fall,” said Hawley.
Many oaks dropped small acorns this year, which “didn’t do much for our bears,” Hawley said. As a result, he predicted lower turnip production and survival this winter.
Bear encounters in Connecticut have been making headlines in recent months. In September, a black bear crashed into West’s 2nd birthday party in his Hartford backyard and licked the frosting off the cupcakes before eating them.
Earlier this month, DEEP announced that it would not relocate bears that have chosen a tree in a residential area of West Hartford as their winter home.
Pease Road resident Bachelder reports seeing many animals in his backyard, including mountain lions. He said he caught a glimpse of a bear that escaped from his property months ago, but hadn’t seen one up close until last week.
“There were a lot of reports of bears around here, and everyone seemed to see a bear except me,” said Bahelder. “It was a true life adventure.”
austin.mirmina@hearstmediact.com
