Some tips for feeding birds, not bears

BearWatch believes that if birdfeeders are hung and maintained properly, you can enjoy your feathered friends and in the process help protect our dwindling bear population.

• Tip One: Hang your seed feeders and hummingbird feeders 10 feet up on a sturdy metal line suspended on poles or tree branches. Position your feeders 10 feet from each end of the poles/limbs. Stop feeding for a time if seed is accumulating on the ground.
• Tip Two: If you have high eaves, or second story eaves, you can hang feeders from them.
• Tip Three: Feed small amounts of seed that will last only several hours in the morning. This will work only if you’ve had no bear visitors. If a bear is in your feeders, you will need to stop feeding for a time and go to tip one, two.or four.
• Tip Four: Stop feeding birds from July 1 thru Oct. l. Last summer many people called NMG&F to complain or ask for trapping of bears for being in their bird feeders were told to stop feeding birds during these recommended dates.