As I was driving toward town later that morning I was fortunate enough to see a herd of elk in a pasture. Here are a couple of video clips. The music in the background is the radio, which I didn't realize would record so loudly. It was reassuring to see that the elk are leery of vehicles that pull over on the road, because I'm sure the odd hunter has no qualms with shooting an elk from the road, even though it's illegal. There have been elk in my forest this winter for the first time since I've lived here, and, I suspect, for the first time in thirty years. My neighbour to the south told me elk don't come around here. For two winters I saw no sign of them. This year there was elk scat everywhere. I have not actually seen them because while in the forest they tend to be nocturnal and rather elusive. You tend to either see a herd with 50+ members in an open field during the day or none at all. It dawned on me that it took the elk two winters to realize that the hunter who used to live here was gone and that they were now safe in this forest.
When I returned from town I noticed fresh moose tracks right up to the living room window where the dogs usually sleep (on the couch). They then went down to the barn and sampled the alfalfa hay. I looked out the kitchen window and there was Mama moose sleeping in the forest. I walked around outside, giving Mama moose lots of room so as not to disturb her, looking for Baby in his bed, but did not see him. I then slowly approached a tree about 60 feet from Mama moose, asked if I could rest with her and then knelt down in the snow next to a pine tree. I silently sent her messages that she was safe here and very welcome anytime. I told her how beautiful and unique I thought she was and thanked her for letting me see her baby. She was initially looking right at me with her ears pointing toward me. After a few minutes she looked off in another direction, licked her hind leg and scratched her chin. She seemed to be quite comfortable with my presence by that point. After about 40 minutes I thanked her for letting me spend time with her and quietly left. Unfortunately, I had another appointment in town or I probably would have been there all afternoon.
Here is a photo of Mama moose resting.
When I got back home I went to look for Mama and Baby. They were no longer in their beds. I found Baby's bed about 15 feet from his Mama's. As I was taking photos of the beds and scat piles I could hear the moose further in the forest. I walked in the direction of the noise and found two new beds. Unfortunately, I think I scared them off and they headed deep into the forest.
Here is Mama moose's bed. In the left upper corner you can see an impression from her tail with a lower leg coming down from there and marks from both hooves. The imprints from her bent knees are to the right of her lower leg. Just to the left of the tree trunk is an impression of her left elbow. There is some hair she shed in the lower right corner. This is the bed from the above photo of Mama moose resting. You can refer to this photo to help figure out her body position on the snow. In the photo you can see her right hind leg sticking out in front of her. Her hock and lower leg are resting in the snow. (You can get a better look at the bed by clicking on the photo.)
Here is a close up of the hair:
Here is a photo of Mama moose's scat with a Canadian quarter (moose head up) for size reference. There are a couple old pieces of horse poop in the photo.
I did not see the moose yesterday, but when I went to the barn this morning to feed the horses, there were fresh tracks into the hay shelter. They rubbed off three big wads of hair on the metal gate into the shelter. The gate now has a noticeable curve to it that wasn't there before. I saved the fur, which I noticed has a very distinct "moose" smell to it. I then discovered that Mama and Baby had slept in the forest near the house again. Very interestingly, Mama moose made her bed right by the tree I had knelt under a couple of days earlier. The bare patch just to the left of the tree trunk is the spot where I knelt down into the snow. Baby's bed was a few feet away.
Here is another photo of today's bed that nicely shows her bent hocks (lower left) and lower leg (bottom) with the imprints of her bent knees (right). To the left there are little blood splatters in the snow. The first time I noticed this, a couple of years ago, I wondered if the Mommy moose (not sure if it's the same Mom) was about to have a new baby. She still had her twins with her, which she would normally drive away prior to giving birth to her new calf. I noticed several big, fat ticks left behind in her beds at the time, which led me to speculate that these blood spots are from tick bites. I haven't seen any ticks in the beds this year, but they tend to be a problem for moose this time of year. I have found the occasional tick on the horses in spring. Fortunately, the horse is not the proper host, so the tick hangs on for awhile, but can't complete its life cycle.
Here is a photo of Mama moose's track.
Needless to say between some very windy weather the last couple of days and our visitors from the forest the horses have been really edgy. For those who do not live in moose country, horses for some reason tend to be terrified of moose. Two years ago when the Mom and twins showed up the entire herd ran into the forest to hide except for Bell, the Clydesdale, and Ramsay, a mini. It was quite comical to see this unlikely pair, the biggest and smallest herd members, holding the front line against the "invaders". Wilbur, the donkey, was nowhere to be seen. Donkeys are known to protect their herd from canids. Moose are definitely a different story. The moose are absolutely unfazed by the horses and their panic-stricken antics. The Mom and twins hung around for awhile and the herd eventually settled down when they realized the little moose family wasn't going to have them for lunch.
Wildlife tracking is also part of my "Healing with Horses" program. Here is a cool photo of the imprint left in the snow when a raven took off.
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