December 29, 2018
Journal notes on the rare bear visitor in Fulton County, GA:
Early in the morning I found our birdfeeder station knocked down on the ground. The station offered sunflower seeds -- now spilled, and suet (both store-bought and homemade) -- now missing. I erroneously thought that it was a due to unchecked erosion at the base of the pole caused by the heavy rain (see the fire ants floating during yesterday's flood) together with the probable erosion caused over time by chickens and birds that like to scratch the ground for seeds below the birdfeeders.
So that morning I spent about an hour collecting as many sunflower seeds piled up on the leaf litter (about 20 pounds) to restock the metal feeders and I found that the suet feeder was empty and thrown farther away (thinking a lucky opossum or raccoon found it on the ground during the night before), so I restocked it with a store-bought suet. Then I secured the pole on the ground by making a 1' deep hole in the clay and burying the block of cement attached to the thick pole for the birdfeeders and covering the area with heavy rocks. It was very secure and should have lasted at least a year. However, it didn't even last a day.
At about 8:30 p.m., from inside a bathroom upstairs, I heard a loud, metallic-like crashing sound in the backyard. I thought it was a either a prowler (one was caught recently close-by) or my dad pushing a lawnmover into other items. So I turned off the lights, slowly opened the window, and saw a large black bulky thing which I thought was an overturned wheelbarrow, but it wasn't since it was slowly walking away on all fours.
Rushed downstairs, found out that my dad was not outside, so told my parents there's either a guy or a bear out there. Went outside slowly and wow, a beautiful bear! Went back inside, got the camera, let everyone else know, friends and family (some of whom called neighbors and even the police!), and I went back out with others. It had moved down a few feet to behind a young arborvitae tree, peeking his head out looking at us. Then it turned around, passed through an opening in the fence where a tree had fallen thanks to Irma, and continued down the wooded ravine with loud heavy footsteps (since the ground surface down there is covered in ivy and sticks).
The next day I set up the birdfeeders with suet, but not securely knowing it might be a waste of effort, but it didn't come again. Searched online for any nearby reports, and yes, it's very likely the same bird-feeder-loving bear that's "been roaming around [Buckhead] for at least a year," since March 2018. Furthermore, the Long Island Creek begins just a bit north of this neighborhood and ends at the Chattahoochee River NRA--East Palisades/Whitewater Unit - the same area of Buckhead where many of the reports were coming from. So it must have followed the creek upstream, especially with all the heavy rain. https://www.11alive.com/article/life/animals/buckhead-bear-spotted-on-home-surveillance-video-digging-into-bird-feeder/85-eaa52f27-5623-43da-b78d-68843682be44
*This journal post was in draft mode since that day until 2023!
