2008.09.17
Bear sighting off Dry Hollow Road
We have more bears. Ellen Griffith sends us the latest account of our ursine neighbors:
"We live on Poor Mountain on Hidden Falls Drive (off of Dry Hollow Road near Camp Roanoke - Salem/Roanoke County). We had a bear in our trash can this summer on July 12th @ 1:30 a.m. We have since moved our trash can inside and have only seen him once more (a couple of weeks later). My 3 year old daughter and I saw him walking through the woods one afternoon @ 12! We were in our car and he didn't seem a bit afraid of us. We stopped to watch him & he just sauntered across the road and off into the woods. Now I never leave home without my camera!"
We've added Ellen's sighting to our online map of bear sightings throughout Western Virginia. So have you seen a bear in or around Salem? If so, let us know at news@sosalem.com
Here are the other bear sightings we've heard about:
* Sept. 8: Howard Shumate sent us a gallery of photos of a bear in South Salem.
* Sept. 6: Noah and Charlotte Hutchison sent us photos of a bear snacking from their birdfeeder.
* August 26: Mary Schoonover of Bennett Springs sent us a photo of a bear in broad daylight in her back yard.
* July 30: Judy Bates sent us a creepy photo of a bear clawing at her kitchen window in the middle of the night in the Laurel Woods community. We had more about bears in Laurel Woods on August 25.
* July 18: Sherri Parrish told us about a bear she saw in Salem proper near the intersection of Franklin and Upland.
* July 15: Jerry and Linda Watts sent us a photo of the bear that wandered into their backyard on Sagewood Circle off 311.
* July 14: We posted an entire photo gallery of the bear that raided the bird feeder in Loyd Tingler's backyard off Wildwood Road.
* And Matt Miller sent us a photo of a bear that showed up last year in his neighborhood on Wildwood Road.
