A Walk Around Sunset

We had a lovely relaxing day on Saturday but I have to say all day long I was looking out the windows to see if perhaps some wildlife would show up for me to take a picture of. Finally, shortly after noon, we spotted three moose browsing on the far side of our property. Alas, they were a quarter of a mile away and even with my lovely new lens there was no way to take a picture of them. Then, a little later on, our resident fox showed up hunting for mice, but again, too far away.... frustrating!

Finally as the day was coming to an end Mountain Man asked if I wanted to go for a walk. Of course I said, "yes!" I wasn't about to be deterred by the -25 degree temperatures but I have to say bundling up enough to stay warm was a bit daunting. It wasn't long however before we were trucking through the snow in search of our prey.

Finally after about 20 min or so we heard a crackling in the woods and crouched down so as not to scare whatever it was off, but although the crackling continued nothing came toward us and nothing could be seen so we moved forward to try to find the source of the noise. We finally caught a glimpse of her on a trail but she was gone too quickly for anything but a glance. We waited... and waited.... Maybe she would come back?

Nothing...  So we started forward again with the snow crackling and crunching under our feet. It's funny how loud just walking can be in the winter time. You can barely hear what is going on around you as you are making so much noise. I'm sure a moose could come up behind us and we wouldn't hear them until they crashed into us. Ahh...  now you know what was going through my mind as I crunched along looking at my feet and trying to pick a softer, quieter place to step. Mountain Man turned to say something to me and I looked up. There she was! Right over his left shoulder and she was on the move!

I didn't even have time to say anything but started to struggle desperately to get my camera out of my jacket. Stupid zipper! Why can't I grab the zipper pull? Because my mittens are too fat to grab anything! That's why! Hurry, hurry! I glanced up still tugging at my zipper and saw her doing a ground eating lope across the field. If you have ever watched a moose run it is an awesome sight. But she's getting away!. Oh no! The zipper finally came down and I struggled to get the camera with it's long lens out of my bulky jacket.  Come on already! Finally! But she is almost at the edge of the field!

Then, just when I thought there was no way I was going to get a picture, she stopped. Just stopped. Something must have made a sound in the woods as she listened intently while I finally snapped away.

She was a beauty! I sure hope she is pregnant as I would love to see some baby moose this spring! I was thinking at this point that maybe she hadn't seen us but then she turned her head and looked straight at us before loping off into the woods.

She was still quite a distance away so this was as close as I could get with my new lens but at least I finally was able to take a picture!

After she moved off we turned and walked home. As we crunched along we watched the sky turn to violet and then pink. What a lovely way to end the day.