Amazingly photogenic bear caught on Wesford camera

A Westford neighborhood was on alert after a resident’s camera recorded a black bear wandering through backyards Wednesday morning.

Joy Calla, who lives on Tyngsboro Road, said the bear ambled through her family’s yard around 4:30 a.m. Calla said a bird feeder had been damaged a week earlier, so she and her husband decided to monitor the area with a video camera.

The family decided to look at the video footage Wednesday after noticing the bird feeder had been damaged once again.

“When it got to be daylight, we noticed the bird feeder was bent over, and we knew the camera was pointed that way, so we took a look,” she said.

The bird feeder was out of the camera’s range, but the bear could be seen on the black-and-white video meandering through the yard and chewing on tree branches.

Calla’s neighbor, Laura Enrico, said that the uninvited ursine visitor caused damage in her yard, and that her bird feeders were missing.

“The last time he came, there’s a big pole that comes off the deck with a lot of feeders, and he just completely bent it in half,” Enrico said. “This time he just ripped it right off the deck, so the railing is damaged, and there are claw marks.”

Enrico said she is going to wait and see if the bear returns before putting up any more feeders.

“We’ll let the snow fall first and see if the bear will go to sleep and hibernate,” Enrico said. “It’s costing money, and it’s just been a lot of work the two times he’s been here.”

Enrico said in the 34 years she and her husband have lived in the neighborhood, they have seen baby bears but never a bear this large. Calla agreed.

“We have lived here now for over 30 years, but it’s only been recently we’ve started to see all this,” Calla said. “I don’t know if the building around us has increased and they’re coming out from where they were before.”