"We live in the North Country, so these things happen," said Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Jeffrey Dempster on Sept. 14, standing on Frederick Drive in Saratoga Springs with a pair of binoculars he was using to keep an eye on the 150 to 200 pound black bear in a tree about 100 feet away in someone's back yard.


That was the second reported bear sighting this year in the Spa City.

The first, of course, was the Skidmore bear a month before the Frederick Bear (as I've just dubbed him to keep things straight) was spotted.

Some have suggested maybe the bears are one in the same (some kind of Skiderick or Fredmore bear), including the Skidmore bear himself on his Twitter account, @SkidmoreBear, who claimed to be in a tree at the time of the Frederick Bear, but I suppose there are a lot of trees out there.

Anyway, Saturday another resident e-mailed to say she and her family saw a bear running down the road between Larkspur and Rip Van Lane on Adams Road at about 8 p.m. the day after the Frederick Bear sighting.

She called the police, who went over there but did not find any bear.

Obviously, this year bear sightings in Capital Region residential areas are on the rise (#Bearmageddon and #Bearpocolypse were both hash-tags that stood out on Twitter this year).

These bear sightings seem to be generating a lot of public interest (they have been the top stories read online every time we cover them) so I figured we could engage the community a little with this and try to map out where the bear(s) have been spotted.

I'm sure there have been more sightings, but I haven't heard about them. So far, these are the ones I know about.


View Da Bear(s) in a larger map

Anyone with more bear sightings, let me know and I'll add them to the map and the blog.

You can e-mail me at lmccarty@saratogian.com.

Just let me know as specifically as possible where the bear was. If you can get a picture, even better but DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER TO DO IT.

UPDATES:
- Bear sighted on Labor Day on Worth Road in Wilton. I added it to the map, but you might have to scroll up to find it. A woman reported that a black bear broke her bird feeder and ate the bird seed. 
- Mother and baby cub sighted behind Stiles Tavern in Wilton on Parkhurst Road.
- Here is a photo of a bear that hung out in someone's back yard in Greenfield Center on September 1.

Sad update: Got this comment below:

Late last night (September 16th) a black bear sow and her cub were hit and killed near the intersection of Middleline and Northline Road. My daughter nearly struck the dead cub in the road late last night on her way home. I didn't think she had seen a dead cub so I went to the accident location this morning to verify her story. I was told that the sow was hit first and the cub was struck by a different vehicle later. I was also told by a relative of the person that hit the small cub that there were actually three cubs who ran across the road. Unfortunately, one of them did not make it across the road in time and was struck and killed. I'm not sure what happened to the bears (both dead ones and the other two cubs) since I had to go to work. The dead cub appeared to be about 7 months old.

 2:51 p.m. Tuesday: Got more corroboration.
 Jeff Varecka e-mailed me to say:

On Northline road yesterday morning 9/17 on my way to work around 7am, I saw a Sheriff's cruiser and two other cars pulled over to the side of the road. In the ditch was what I was almost positive was a bear. I only saw the one animal, I was looking for news updates on this all day and saw nothing. I was sure it wasn't a dog that had been hit but wasn't sure if the bear had been tranquilized or killed.

Here is the story by Paul Post about the bears killed in two accidents. Of course, that is one of the issues at the convergence of wildlife and residential areas.

Here's another addition to the bear sightings:

-Saturday Sept 1st a black bear showed up in my backyard on Locust Grove Rd in Greenfield around 8:30pm.  He pulled down the first of two bird-feeders, and my niece and I couldn't scare him away with clanging pots or whistling or shouting.  My niece's car alarm scared him up the tree in the middle of my yard but he wouldn't leave.  The DEC just said not to approach it and that if it tried to break into the house to call the sheriff because they could arrive before the DEC could.  Also to take in the bird-feeders until time for the bears to hibernate.  I don't know exactly when the bear left but it was some time after midnight, and he did leave a little bit of seed in the second feeder. 
 

Keep the bear sightings coming. I'm planning on keeping this post updated and will keep adding bear sightings to the map and the blog. We're up to seven sightings now.


And I will leave you with this, which is all I can think when these bear sightings happen.