Finally....bear sighting!

My hip ached during the night and I couldn't get comfortable, tossing and turning, and kicking Cliff.  So I hobbled into the kitchen, took a couple of arthritis strength at 3:30 AM, and headed for the front bedroom where I could stretch out or pile pillows under my leg.....whatever it took to ease the ache.  I didn't get much sleep between the aching and Maxine purring with contentment because I was sharing her bed.  About 6 o'clock I figured it was too late to try and go back to sleep and sat up looking out the window.  The sky was a heavy overcast and at 6 it's still dusky here because we are only about 30 miles east of the central time zone.  There was a motionless dark shape right outside the window which I stared at wondering what we had placed out there.  Then it began walking!  Finally............I got to watch the black bear.  It was a fairly good-sized bear, probably about 250 pounds.  It walked around to where the feeders were, I brought them in last night, stood up and stretched up against the tree as if a feeder still existed. I watched it lumber around the garden sniffing the ground and returning to each placed where a feeder hung on its previous night raid.  There was still one small feeder that I overlooked last night hanging on a crook but it was empty so all the bear did was bat it bending the crook to one side.  What an awesome sight!  At one point the bear looked up, spotted me watching from the window and  walked toward our porch, turned around and then picked up its pace as it headed back up the hill and into the woods.  I was able to watch it for about 10 minutes before it spotted me and left. Actually, I was quite surprised to have seen it at 6AM............making me wonder how many other mornings now it has been out roaming around when I get up and hit the coffee button. 

Wasn't the bear cooperative to pose like this!?

This was about the size of the one I watched.