Waterford man's camera captures feeder culprits PA

[Donna]

WATERFORD -- James Hill III suspected a bear had pulled down the suet feeder in his Waterford Township yard.

So he put out a camera with a motion detector and captured not a single bear, but three -- a mother and two cubs.

"I was astonished," Hill said. "I never figured there'd be a family."

The three animals photographed Monday morning on Hill's property on Union Road are among numerous black bears sighted in Erie County this year. Others have been spotted just outside the Erie city limits in Millcreek Township and also in Harborcreek and Greene townships. One was shot in Summit Township, and another was recorded on a security camera outside Fairview High School, both in June.

A Pennsylvania Game Commission official has said the black bears in Erie County are the result of a growing black bear population in the state.

The cubs Hill saw are evidence of the growth. He estimated each weighed maybe 75 pounds, with the mother at a couple hundred.

"I'm happy to have them," Hill said. "They have a safe place to live here."

They weren't the first bears to visit his 150 acres, which he described as his own wildlife sanctuary. Hill, an ornithologist, said there are more than 100 breeding species of birds there, as well as animals like beavers.

He's had bears visit before, most recently in 2010. That's why he suspected one when the metal arm holding his suet feeder, which is about five feet off the ground, was pulled down and bent last week.

So he set up the camera, which managed to take about 60 photographs of the bears Monday shortly after 9 a.m.

Hill said he was sitting at that time with a computer by a window overlooking the feeders but didn't notice the bears right away. When he did, they were only about eight feet away.

The Waterford man, who described himself and his property as "critter-friendly," said the bears were welcome there despite the damage they did.

GoErie.com

[MAK]

  8 feet away from them! Can you imagine?