Moose for Coffee

I had planned on continuing our story today however upon waking this morning we noticed we had visitors. So, instead of scurrying to the computer we sat and had our coffee (tea in my case) and watched our visitors.  They appeared to be almost completely unafraid and giving a little hop commenced to entering our small animal pasture and having their breakfast. They are so huge that the hop over the sheep fence was almost just a walk over! We were very glad they didn't just decide to mow it down.

It was two huge male moose. I have been doing research on moose since we moved here as we often have a few which stay the winter. All of my research has stated moose are solitary creatures which makes me wonder if anyone has really studied the moose for very long in the wild.  These two big boys were obviously years apart in age. With the binoculars we were able to clearly see the differences.  The one with the white hind legs is at least a few years younger than the older male.  His body size was much leaner and smaller as well as his antlers were very much smaller. So, why are they together? From what we observed they were just enjoying each others company. Once the younger one started pushing the bigger one as if wanting to play but since he didn't want to they just continued eating breakfast. 

We watched and took pictures for about an hour or so.  When life grants you this chance you take it and forget about other things that need to be done for a while. My one regret is that I am unable to take the pictures I would like to take.  I have a fairly decent camera but it doesn't zoom in enough for pictures like this. Maybe I will have to invest in a larger zoom. I know it is a want and not a need but with so much wildlife around here I would like to be able to share better pictures.

Eventually they moved off and hoped the fence again and although it is another overcast and grey day today it won't get me down. How can one be at all sad or depressed when you wake up to visitors like this in the morning? I'm sure we will see a lot more of them this winter and I'm not complaining one bit.