Monday, November 23, 2009

Waynesboro receives visit from mama bear and cubs

Waynesboro, Virginia, is a quiet little city whose eastern edges touch the Shenandoah National Park of the Blue Ridge Mountains. One would think a black bear or two in town would not come as a surprise ... but when residents saw a mama black bear and her two cubs meandering down Main Street on Saturday, it caused much excitement.

Several hundred people ended up watching as the bears climbed a tree for safety ... and then as rescuers moved in to tranquilize and move the bears. It was the second bear sighting in Waynesboro this year but there have been many throughout the central Shenandoah Valley area as the black bear population grows in the nearby national forests.

We haven't seen any at SWAC House yet this year but fellow SWACer Barb had a black bear swat her bird feeder to the ground one night and then sprawled on the ground dining on every single morsel. When he returned the next night he was disappointed because she did not refill the feeder.

SWAC Husband was driving north of Crimora recently when he saw numerous vehicles pulled over to the side of the road and people standing around looking up in a big tree where a mother bear and her cubs had taken refuge. He was surprised that some people were directly under the tree ... kind of in the line of fire if the mother bear decided to scamper down and charge.

Part of the beauty of living in western Virginia is the opportunity to observe nature that surrounds us and that includes bears, deer, wild turkeys, bobcats, and every other manner of wild critter native to these parts.

It's autumn in the Shenandoah Valley....

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