There have been several recent sightings of black bears visiting Brookhaven neighborhood in Windham, according to former Lakes Region Suburban Weekly reporter Bruce LeClaire.
“This is a fairly heavily populated area and there’s a bear running around here,” said LeClaire who lives on Brookhaven Drive.
Three weeks ago, LeClaire was leaving for work in the morning when he noticed a group of neighbors conversing on the street.
They asked LeClaire if he had seen a black bear that had lumbered through his backyard and then scooted off through the neighborhood.
LeClaire told the neighbors he hadn’t, but that he would keep a vigilant eye in coming weeks to see if the furry visitor returned.
Last week, while getting ready for work again, LeClaire spotted the bear as it slowly crossed through his front yard at around 6:30 a.m on Monday.
“There it was right outside my window moving right to left with his back to me,” LeClaire said.
The bear appeared to be a “roly-poly” five-feet tall as it picked up pace and ran quickly off down the street and into the woods.
This is not the first bear sighting in the region this summer.
On June 10, a Windham resident on Vance Drive walked outside his house at 6 a.m. only to be greeted by a black bear sitting in his driveway, according to a police report.
During that same time, many Anglers Road residents also notified local police of bear sightings.
In late spring, black bears visited the town of Gray and caused a disturbance in the center of town by pawing at bird feeders and attacking garbage and barbecue grills left outside.
These late spring and early summer sightings are not uncommon, said Kendall Marden, assistant regional wildlife biologist for Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Once these bears awake from their winter slumber, they are hungry and sometimes wander into suburban areas searching for food.
Though black bears are relatively docile, the problem comes when these bears get in the habit of robbing bird feeders, picking up scraps from barbeques and digging through household garbage for food.
The black bear population in Maine remains around 22,000, Marden said, as it has for many years. But with suburban sprawl constantly encroaching on bear habitat in the large tracts of wilderness in Maine, these sightings do become more prevalent.
Male bears roam a 50-mile circumference during the spring and summer while female bears stay in a closer radius to protect their young. Younger males often wander into the danger and temptation of suburbia once they begin exploring the Maine wilderness outside their mother’s care.
“They’re young bears that are just leaving their mother for the first time,” Marden said. “And they are continuing to expand their horizons.”
These bear sightings tend to drop off in late summer when there’s more food available in the woods, he said.
To prevent bears from becoming a nuisance in your backyard, Marden recommends keeping bird feeders and household garbage inside as well as cleaning your grill and picking up any food scraps on the ground after use. And whatever you do, don’t feed the bears, Marden said.
If you see a black bear roaming in your neighborhood, contact the Maine Warden Service at 657-2345 or the Maine State Police at 1-800-482-0730.
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