A black bear looks over the bird feeders of Oxford residents backyard. It gorged on the jelly that was put out for the Orioles; hit up a few more feeders, and then rambled on. Bird feeders should be taken down to help eliminate bear visits. (Photo by Bob Greenman)

OXFORD - Reports of bear sightings in the area seem to be a more common occurrence recently. A few of the recent incidents occurred in rural areas of Preston, New Berlin, McDonough and Oxford, to name a few.

About a week ago Oxford resident Bob Greenman had a bear visit his backyard . He said he was sitting at his kitchen table and noticed something moving outside. A bear was standing at one of his feeders.

“The bear was trying to eat the jelly from the oriole feeder. After that, it was headed for the other feeders when it caught my dad’s attention,” he said. “My dog barked from a distance and it wandered off. I just grabbed my phone and started taking pictures from the kitchen.”

“It didn’t look surprised; but irritated the dog brought attention to it,” he added.

Greenman said this was his first bear sighting but he wasn’t alarmed. He didn’t call it in as the bear left peacefully and it was only an infant. His only worry was where its parents could be.

Friends of Rogers Environmental Education Center Ellen Rathbone said she has not seen any bears, nor heard of any recent accounts of bear sightings.

She did however share the following best practices when humans and bears encounter one another; as she lived and worked in the Adirondacks and human-bear encounters were not uncommon.