AUGUSTA — A black bear scaled a porch railing and post early Tuesday morning to try to reach a bird feeder at home on the east side of Augusta.

The bear feat, captured on an outdoor camera, is seen on a short video clip taken by the homeowner.

Robert Doyon said Tuesday that this was the first encounter with a bear at his mother’s home on Pullen Road.

Doyon, 25, of Lewiston, said he had dropped his fiancé off at work at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and drove over to his mother’s house just off Route 3.

“I saw the bird feeder was in the middle of the road,” he said. “I was wondering why the bird feeder was in the middle of the road.”

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His mother, who was just waking up, told him, “A bear visited us last night.”

The two viewed the security camera footage and watched the bear arrive around 4:30 a.m.

“The bear was there about 5 to 10 minutes or so,” Doyon said. “He was climbing up to access a bird feeder and in the video you can see him try to get to a smaller bird feeder close to the house, When he’s unsuccessful, he moves off camera and knocks another one over and takes it over to the road.”

Doyon said the bear might have preferred the one closer to the house since the farther feeder’s food was laced with cayenne pepper to discourage voracious squirrels while leaving the birds unaffected.

Doyon also said he contacted a Maine wildlife biologist about the bear encounter and was told the foraging bear was likely one of the so-called “bird-feeder bears.”

“He was probably just curious and hungry,” Doyon said, adding that the area is pretty rural. “We see deer and foxes and a bunch of other things, but this was our first bear-sighting.”

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Doyon said he was told that as long as the bear was harming anything, it could be left alone. However, if the bear causes any more ruckus, it could be relocated.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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