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STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK PHOTOS BY STEVE POWERS Steve Powers just wanted to feed the birds. But he unwittingly ended up feeding an 80-pound bear cub, instead. Powers put a bird feeder up on his house on 8th Street and 4th Avenue near Hemingway School last winter and reveled in all the chickadees and other birds that flocked to the sunflower seed.
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When the bear cub spotted Steve Powers looking at him, it skedaddled up the tree.
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“We were getting so many that I wondered what would happen if I stuck out my hand with a little bird seed on it. And, sure enough, the chickadees began feeding right out of my hand. I filled up the bird feeder for the summer, but it turned out that you don’t get so many birds this time of the year because there are so many other things for them to eat. “But we did attract the bear.” Power was sitting in his office on the Fourth of July when he looked out the window spotting the bear. “He saw me looking at him and got scared and ran right up the tree,” he said. “When he came back down, he began feasting on all the seeds siting on the ground. Then he started to walk around the property and finally climbed over the fence.”
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The bear sniffs around to see if any of the plants would make good foodstuffs.
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Powers’ granddaughter’s teddy bear—nearly as big as the bear cub—watched the proceedings from inside the house with the rest of the family. The Ketchum Police notified area residents and told them to leave the bear cub alone in hopes that it would skedaddle and return to the wild. But the bear cub returned on Monday, July 7. “The local Sheriff and Idaho Fish and Game have been notified,” Powers said. “The concern is that the cub’s mother might also be in the area. Meanwhile, I have learned that my bird feeder should not be up, except in the winter.” At least, not unless you want to have a Teddy Bears Picnic.
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Shooting a picture through the screen cast an interesting geometric pattern on the bear.
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The bear is in birdseed heaven.
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