The Moose Came Back the Very Next Day

In the last few months we haven't done very much in the way of walking. Going for a walk up here is much different from in the city and requires more preparation. Also, with so many moose around it was not a really good idea. We didn't want to scare them away as we have been having too much fun watching them and we also didn't want to come face to face with one that might not take our presence to be a good thing. However, seeing as they seemed to have disappeared and the deer were back, Mountain Man decided it was time to go for a bit of a walk about the property.

Wouldn't you know it but I was elbow deep in baking (literally) so couldn't go with him. Not sure why he choose that time to go, but it being baking day I wasn't leaving the kitchen. It takes a while to get the oven in my wood stove to the right temperature and I had cookies, biscuits, scones and pizza ready to baked, so I just sighed and told him to have fun and went back to my baking. Thankfully he decided to take my camera along with him.

The air was brisk but fairly nice and  he had a lovely walk. He found a lot of deer tracks but although the tracks were fresh the makers of the tracks kept hidden. It wasn't until he was on his way back and had just come around a bend in the track that he spotted a huge shape in the trees. A moose! There he was, just laying there half hidden behind the trees starring at him.

He was only about 35 feet away so Mountain Man was able to see him pretty up close and personal, kinda like my little experience when I was walking to the outhouse. This one is pretty young and is probably only a year or two old. Take a real close look at his head, right in front of his ear. Do you see it? There is a round spot there where his antlers fell off and will be growing back soon.

It wasn't until Mountain Man was going to start walking away that he notice a much larger female moose standing and watching him. He has no idea how long she was there or if she had been there the entire time and he just didn't see her but she was just as close as this guy and much larger. Time to complete his walk and head home. Hah! So all the moose didn't leave! Wow! This place is getting busy! What will be next?

I did take a bit of a break that day and was able to capture a flock of birds feeding outside dining room window. It was so funny to watch them. They flew around and around the house and then settled on some tall plants and proceeded to eat. There were probably 25 to 30 of them.

They are very tiny. That bush is about 4 feet high.

Aren't they cute? I have no idea what they are but I love watching them. 

I'm really loving this new camera lens! I've never been able to take close ups like this before. 

A Little Bit o' Fun

So, I stumbled down the stairs yesterday morning and as usual glanced outside to see if any of our moose friends were about. They have a tendency to eat late in the even and early in the morning so, often by the time I am really up and about they are bedded down somewhere for the day. But, what should I see? Two, count them! Two beautiful boys eating in the field behind the house! All right! I was awake now!

I rushed to get dressed, (come on clothes! Oh boy! Now my shirt is inside out and backwards.. I'll fix it later. Why does it take so long to dress when you are in a hurry?) quickly grabbed my camera and headed outside hoping they would still be there. They had barely moved! Yeah me! The funny thing is I wasn't exactly quiet and I know they knew I was there but just didn't care. In fact they didn't even bother to glance in my direction, just went on eating and browsing for food. Look at them! Aren't they gorgeous!

I'm really not sure who this guy is. I know it can't be Rocky or Bullwinkle as his antlers are huge and it looks like he hasn't shed them yet. It's not that common but sometimes they don't shed their antlers until spring.. We have some new visitors!

To give you a bit of perspective as it is hard to see in the picture how big he really is here he is walking close to a huge bale of hay which is about 5 1/2 feet tall. If he was actually right up beside it I think you would see that his shoulder is about eight inches or more higher than the bale which would make him over 6 feet tall.

Meanwhile his buddy was grazing about 100 yards away.  He is either fairly young as his antlers are itty bitty or (most likely) he shed his earlier and they are just starting to grow back. In any case he sure looks nice and healthy.

So there I am, happily clicking away at these two boys and then I happen to glance to my far right and what should I see? A female moose! Yep! She was there all along and I just didn't see her! By the time I moved my camera around she was moving off and I almost didn't get her picture.

See her belly hanging low? I'm thinking there is definitely a baby on the way! May can't come soon enough now and I sure hope we are able to get a glimpse of the young one.

So, since yesterday was such an exciting morning I hoped this morning would prove to be the same, but, alas! No moose friends to see. It is however a rather beautiful morning as the trees are all frosted over and glittering like jewels in the morning sunlight.

Oh how I wish some of the moose would have been around this morning! What a back drop this would have made to the photo's.

Here is a close up of the frost covering the trees. If only the camera could pick up how it shines and glimmers in the morning sunshine. Have a great day and weekend everyone!

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.

The Moose and the Outhouse

This is where Rocky was when I woke up in the morning. 

Now... As much as I love the wildlife around here there are some places they really shouldn't go.  I mean I love watching Rocky and Bullwinkle and even that fight we saw the other night didn't concern me too much, but of course I was on the inside of the house and they were on the outside.

This morning as I was coming down from the loft to make coffee I glanced out the window to behold Rocky (he is the one with the white hind legs) all by himself munching on some trees for breakfast. Kinda cool, I wondered where Bullwinkle was but figured maybe they decided to split up after their little fight. Mountain Man was kind enough to go out and take a few pictures for me and after a bit he moved off.  I thought nothing more of it but went about getting my coffee and breakfast. Now that I think about it, how nonchalant was that to go, "Oh, cool" and go about my day when I have a moose in my back yard!

About 10 am I realized the light snow had stopped so the solar panels needed to be dusted off. On went my winter gear and off I went. No big deal really, a few swipes of the broom and they were all clear and look at that! The clouds were leaving and the sun was peeking through. This was shaping up to be a terrific day... and then I made a mistake. I decided to use the outhouse. (If you remember in one of my earlier blogs I wrote about our compost toilet and how we really don't like to use it much due to its not composting correctly.)

I was about half way from the house to the outhouse, close to Mountain Man's truck when I saw the dark shape behind a few small trees just back of the outhouse. Why do I always forget to put my glasses on! I can see OK without them but I probably would have noticed him sooner if I had them on. Now... the outhouse was about 25 feet away and Rocky was 10 feet on the other side of it. I froze. Hmm... can't run, can go forward. I've never been in a staring contest with a moose before. What to do? I guess I could jump in the truck if he decided to take a dislike to me, but then again, I've seen what a moose can do to a truck.

If you have done any reading on these animals you will have learned that they are one of the most dangerous  in North America. Here you have an animal that can weigh close to 2000 pounds, be almost 7 ft tall and run as fast as a rabbit... and was staring straight at me from 35 feet away. Unless he moved I wasn't going to get to the john..... 

While not normally aggressive I'd seen first hand how unafraid they were and how deadly they could be. The truck was only 5 ft away, the house 25 ft. He stamped his foot, strange... I've never seen a moose do that before. 15 seconds...  I could have thrown up my hands and I'm fairly certain he would have run off, but I didn't want him to leave for good. I just wanted to get to where I was going. What you going to do big boy?  

He turned, (big sigh!) walked away, and disappeared into the trees crashing some as he picked up speed.  Wow! Now that was interesting! I will never again walk anywhere outside without looking carefully around. Ha! That's a walk to the outhouse I won't soon forget!

Moose Fight!

I was planning on doing a post today about how to properly clean a wood stove and chimney but it will take a bit for the fire to die down so I will have to post about it tomorrow. Besides, I'm just dying to tell you about our little moose encounter on Friday evening. First an apology, I have no pictures! So, so sorry, but it was just too dark as the sun had already set.

I was, of course, up in my office loft working on something on the internet when I heard Mountain Man exclaim "OH MY! OH WOW!!!"  I looked over my loft railing to see him glued to the window, binoculars in hand, so of course I rushed down the stairs to see what was up. He had been standing there for a while watching two bull moose who were feeding not more than 50 yards from the house. They were actually in my garden although nothing will be planted there for a few more months.

Suddenly the smaller bull rushed at the bigger one and standing on his hind legs started to bat at him like a boxer in a ring. Then the bigger one reared up on his hind feet and started batting him back! Mountain Man said it was one of the most amazing sights he has ever seen. Two huge bull moose, about 2000 lbs each batting at each other like boxers! If one of those little bats had hit a person it would have killed him but they didn't seem to be very fazed by it at all. Back and forth they went for a while and then as suddenly as it had begun it was over and they were once again peacefully eating the grasses albeit the smaller one had run off a little ways before going back to eating.

These were the same two moose which had been hanging around for the last two months. They really don't seem to be afraid of us at all so it has been amazing to watch their behavior.  We had seen them disappear for about a week or two and then suddenly pop back out of the forest about two weeks ago with little velvet antlers growing. I had no idea that moose would fight like that. I've seen male horses fight with their feet but for some reason always thought moose fought with their antlers. Of course with their antlers in velvet maybe they are more sensitive which is why they were using their feet. Or maybe this is normal behavior for moose. Since the older one didn't chase after the smaller one I started to wonder if they had just been playing? But it had looked so vicious! Of course some play-fights can look pretty real.

Here is an earlier picture of the two of them when they still had their antlers. 

Oh how I wish I could have taken pictures!!!!! The next morning they were both gone but I'm sure they will be back. I'm thinking of naming them Rocky and Bullwinkle...  Of course you aren't supposed to name your food and I do hope to get drawn for a moose tag next year but, Wow! I so love watching the wildlife here!

A Saturday Afternoon Drive

I want to take a time out for today from our experiences that first year and tell you about a lovely afternoon ride we took yesterday. Weekend afternoon drives used to be something that was done in the, as my children often say, "olden days" but we have found them to be lovely pastimes ourselves. So when Mountain Man asked me if I wanted to go I grinned and said a resounding "yes!" Of course our afternoon drives might not be exactly the same as the ones people used to take.

The first step was to dress appropriately. Snow pants - check! Parka - Check! Winter hat, mittens and boots - check! Oh, and last but certainly not least the camera! We have a nice little 4 wheel drive truck we use around the farm so that had to be warmed up a bit before we could take off. Then away we went, camera ready, windows open but bundled warm to see what we could find. There were no roads where we were going just lots of fields and pathways well warn from our travel summer and winter when the weather and time allowed. The snow was too deep in some places for the quad, which was why we were driving the truck this time.

We bumped along across the fields until we rounded a corner and there she was. Beautiful!

We shut off the engine and just sat there. She didn't appear to mind and went back to eating only glancing in our direction once in a while. Mountain Man just sat there and grinned at me. He informed me he knew she would be here as he had taken a drive this way in the morning and she had played hid and seek with him around the bales of hay. Completely unafraid and cavorting as if wanting him to come play with her. 

All I could do was laugh. This is not the first time he has come home and taken me for a ride to see some wildlife he knew was there. He seems to have this uncanny knack of knowing exactly where to find them. I must say when I took a look at his photo's they were much better than mine. We sat there for a good 10 minutes watching her then started the truck and drove off. She just lifted her head to watch us and went back to eating.

We rambled and bumped along for awhile until Mountain Man slammed on the breaks. He had spotted another animal sitting up about head height in a small tree. It appeared to be sleeping. This time we had no trouble getting up close to take pictures but he/she is still a bit hard to make out among the branches. It was none other than a porcupine. We weren't going to get too close but he didn't seem too bothered by our presence.

It's really hard to tell in the picture but he is facing directly at the camera. His face is the dark brown in the center hiding behind the branches. When we got up too close for his comfort he turn his tail towards us in a warning and we finally decided to leave him too his rest.

Good bye Mr. Porcupine! I'm sure for a lot of people an afternoon's entertainment might be a movie or a trip to the local Starbucks but I would rather take my camera with me and see what the animals are up too. What an enjoyable afternoon! After a ride like that I feel refreshed, content and happy.  What do you do to recharge your batteries?