Musings about Moose in my Alberta Yard

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing ‘Embraceable You’ in spats.
– Woody Allen –

If I was asked to describe typical moose habitat, I would NOT say it was where I live – a prairie landscape dotted with a few stands of aspen and a small body of water that can  hardly be called a lake; farm land and various size acreages; a city of 40,000 people just a mile away, poised to swallow us up.

No, I don’t think of this as moose country, yet every so often a moose or two or three trot past my back yard. They are not there by accident. They are our neighbours.

Right across the road from our house is the hay field where the hawk kids hung out this fall. A few mornings ago we spotted the moose family grazing  there.

There were five of them all together, slowly mowing the pasture in the same manner as a herd of cows would. It was a remarkable sight!

A few days later I was wandering around our property and just inside our northern windbreak I found ungulate tracks in the snow. Looking a lot like a deer print, but much bigger, I decided they were moose tracks. Just then the magpies raised an alarm, I spied movement in the woods, and then the crack of branches breaking as something charged through the trees. I was relieved to see a few white tail deer exit the forest and bound off across the field, and I hoped it was me that had startled them, and not a moose!

Every time I step out my front door I think about the creatures that also call this land home: coyotes and the deer that eat my garden; stinky skunks and a lone weasel; rabbits that also eat my garden; and a family of moose!

It is only a matter of time before all of us have to adapt to the encroachment of the city, or move elsewhere. It will be harder for some than others.