It’s not a creature you might expect to find peering into your window, but there were at least two similar encounters at Alberta homes over the weekend.
Dianne Miller took a brave approach, when it happened at her acreage west of Sundre Sunday afternoon. She began banging on the window and screaming in an effort to shoo the bear away.
“I banged on the inside window and tried to get him to leave and he just stood there and looked at me,” said Miller.
“I’m banging and yelling and screaming and he wouldn’t go away. So I opened the screen door that goes into the sun room and I banged it a few times and then finally he took off.”
It wasn’t the bear’s first time visiting in an apparent attempt to access Miller’s bird feeder.
About 15 minutes earlier, Miller said she “heard this kind of a crack and I came out and he had cracked the window in the bird feeder.” When she peered out at him he took off, only to return soon after.
The bear is actually a bit of a frequent visitor, according to Miller. Last week when he dropped by, he ripped a hole in the same window’s metal screen.
Miller has had a number of run-ins with bears on her rural property. Years ago, late a night, she said a bear was scratching at her front window trying to get at her bird feeder. “I stuck my nose up to the window and of course the bear’s nose was on the other side of the glass.”
She has since removed her bird feeder.
“It breaks my heart because the poor little birds were there this morning going, ‘where’s my food?'”
Miller said wildlife officials advised her that bears aren’t fans of “noise like talk radio.” So, she’s been playing it in her sunroom as a deterrent since Sunday’s visit. So far, the bear hasn’t returned.
In a similar video submitted to Global News Saturday, a bear was also seen pawing at a window of a home just west of Canada Olympic Park. In that case, the homeowner also suggested the bear was trying to get access to seed in a bird feeder.
READ MORE: Bear safety tips: what to do if you spot a bear
Alberta Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Brendan Cox said fall is the most active time of year for bear sightings.
About 12 encounters or conflicts between humans and bears have been reported to Calgary wildlife officers this September, compared to eight in September of last year.