You never can tell who’s going to stop by

Published 3:40 pm Friday, November 16, 2007

A bear pauses for rest in a Sands Ave. yard before lumbering off into the woods.

Hilary Turner came home from work early and found an uninvited guest loitering in the yard of her Sands Avenue home.

“I caught something out of the corner of my eye and I thought it was the neighborhood cat but it seemed a little too large,” Turner said. “I turned back around to look and it was a bear.”

Turner grabbed a camera and snapped photos of the black bear from her kitchen window as it eyed her calmly from the yard. After a few minutes, the bear turned and wandered into the woods.

Turner said her house is adjacent to a wetland and she often sees deer and coyotes, but the bear was a surprise. She spotted the animal on Oct. 29 and showed the photograph to her friends, but didn’t go public until this week.

Her neighbor Mike Rogers said he has heard large animals crashing in the brush behind his home that he suspected were bears, but his two dogs never let them get close.

There are usually a handful of bear sightings around the island each year according to Mike Pratt, director of wildlife services at the West Sound Wildlife Shelter.

Pratt said that during the fall hunting season bears may be stressed enough to seek refuge on the island.

“It may have gotten spooked or chased by a dog and jumped into the water and swam across,” he said.

Once on the island the bears are usually put off by the dense human population and swim back to the peninsula after a couple of days, which is just as well, Pratt said.

While mainland Kitsap County provides excellent bear habitat, they could become a problem on the well-populated island, and it’s best to not encourage them as guests.

“If they see a bear people should make as much noise as possible,” Pratt said. “You do not want to make the bear feel in any way welcome in the neighborhood.”

He also suggests that if homeowners see or hear of a bear in their area they should bring bird feeders and garbage cans inside so it isn’t tempted to stop by.

Turner said she hasn’t seen the bear since taking the photos and was a little disappointed to hear it probably wasn’t a resident.

“I wanted to see it again,” she said.