For me, Tuesday was a big day for wildlife viewing. And I didn’t even have to leave my office. It was a cloudy, gloomy day and I was quietly nerding away, staring at my computer monitor. Then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something very, very large outside my window.
Only five feet from me, the large dark object in the gloom turned out to be the hind end of a moose. Our "back yard" (if you can call it that) is basically mostly just the area under our deck. The yard then drops off down a hill. So anything in the back yard is really close to the house. And in this case, me.
I stood up out of my chair and realized that yes, I was really looking at a huge moose butt. Now I know it’s sort of redundant to say that a moose is huge, but as it turned out, this moose had her offspring with her. And they were not huge. Two baby mooselets (calves) were a few feet from me munching down next to mom.
Knowing that moose are dangerous, especially when they are with the kiddies, I was a little stressed out. Of course, I was inside, and the moose would have to make a big effort to get at me through the window. So, I boldly grabbed my digital camera and opened the window to take some pictures of the moose-filled back yard.
The moose didn’t seem to notice the window opening or care about the camera beeping. Unfortunately, I had a screen in my window and in my demented state, I didn’t think to remove it. So the photos were crummy. (Try taking a photo through a screen and you’ll see what I mean.)
I thought it might be a nifty idea to see if I could peek the camera through the back door for a better shot. Unfortunately, the moment I opened the door a crack, the dogs got all excited, smelled the moose and started barking.
That was probably the first and last moose we’ll be seeing up close and personal. The good news is that they didn’t trample down the garden fence on their way out.