If I had slept in a little later, or had breakfast a little earlier or been admiring the morning by looking out the windows on the back side of the house, I would have missed the show completely.
A pair of moose, mom and a young one, were in our front yard, giving a willow bush a thorough pruning. They were about 8 meters (25 feet) from me. (I was safely in the house – which is why these photos are not very clear. The window glass isn’t very clean and there are horizontal reflections from the venetian blinds.)
After they de-leafed the willow, the momma moose crossed the driveway and stepped onto our patio. She was now only a few meters away from our front door. She contemplated the spirea bush in the planter box, but decided it was not all that appetizing.
Mom and baby then headed back across the driveway, strolled past The Car Guy’s truck…
… the young one sniffed a spruce bow, then sauntered out of my sight.
I made a mad dash to my crafty room, which looks out in the direction they had gone. The blinds were closed in that room. I twisted the little rod that opens them and… it is hard to say who was more surprised. Me looking in the eyes of a moose that was not more than a meter (3 feet) away from me – or the momma moose. (Sure was glad there was a wall between us…)
Momma moose looked back down at the shrubbery she had been contemplating, then slowly moved on.
A few minutes later they were at the back of our property, de-leafing the trees in that area.
Later, much later, The Car Guy and I followed their meal path. I am so glad we have a 6 foot chain link fence protecting all the trees, bushes and other delicacies that I have planted over the years. If not for that fence, I think my yard would have been eaten all up.
Moose Facts
Scientific Name: Alces alces
Average weight: 400 kilograms for a male; 350 kilograms for a female
Average length: 2.4 metres to 3.2 metres
Average lifespan: 15 to 20 years in the wild
– The moose is the largest member of the deer family. (Yes, I’d certainly say that is true!)
– Moose live in the boreal forest and are found along the margins of lakes, muskegs and streams. Their range also includes the aspen parkland of the prairies (that’s us).
– The only natural predators of moose are grizzly bears and wolf packs. (We don’t have those here. The only danger would be from vehicles, but moose are not nocturnal. During daylight hours, the slow moving traffic in our rural area would most likely see a moose near the road even before the moose saw the vehicle…)
Amusives 