A Bear Destroys Our Tree Swallow Nest Box
I looked out at our meadow this morning and saw this. What a horrible shock!
Examining the evidence, it’s clear the culprit is a Black Bear. His teeth marks on the box give him away. I’m sorry to report that the female swallow was a victim of the raid – we saw an adult wing next to the remains of the box. The adult female swallow and her eggs or chicks were food for the bear.
The male Tree Swallow circled the box throughout the morning. He perched on our porch railing with an insect in his mouth looking for his mate to feed, and then he perched in nearby trees chirping softly. This broke our hearts. But we know the bear is also a resident of the habitat which includes our yard and is acting on his natural instincts to find food.
For a month we have delighted in the comings and goings of the Tree Swallows nesting in our meadow. We never imagined that the nest box was at risk. People talk about bear threats to feeders but we’ve never heard of them going after next boxes.
As difficult as this is, it’s a good lesson from the natural world – you never know what may happen. Sometimes it’s pure delight, sometimes it’s heartbreaking.
Background
We have put up hummingbird feeders for the last two seasons without incident – not so, this year. This brazen individual enjoyed a sugar water treat last week.
We took down the feeders and deep cleaned the deck. The bear returned the next day, but left quickly when it found no feeders. We had no more bear encounters, and thought we had solved the problem until the nest box incident. Unfortunately we may have inadvertently drawn the bear to our yard with the hummingbird feeders and put the nest box at risk.
Neighbors have reported bears in their yards too, and the local paper is even reporting bears breaking into houses in nearby Jackson. Perhaps there are more bears or less natural food this year.
When we moved here from Massachusetts three years ago, we were so excited to see our first New Hampshire bear. It took months to see one and we finally had a mother and two cubs at the edge of our property last year – a thrilling and fleeting sighting. Then this happened. We are feeling much more like locals – the thrill of seeing a bear is gone. We have a deeper appreciation of the multi-layered habitat we live in, and what that means living with wildlife. Bears make it hard to support birds in the traditional way with feeders and nest boxes.
On a brighter note, three gorgeous Cedar Waxwings were feasting on the berries of our Serviceberry tree while this was all going on. Fruit bearing trees are definitely a safer way to support wildlife in bear country!