Readers’ wildlife photos

October 20, 2017 • 10:00 am

Reader Don Bredes has a neighborhood moose, and he kindly sent photos and some notes (indented):

Our neighborly moose (Alces alces), whose tracks we’ve been taking note of this fall, wandered through the freshly tilled garden this morning, helping herself to the remaining chard and the Brussels Sprouts leaves by the evidence. My wife and I did not notice her until she’d reached the edge of our field. I went out to wish her a good day–and a good day it is–and managed to approach within 15 yards. That was as close as I dared. She’s bigger than she may appear here and healthy-looking. I spoke to her. More curious than perturbed, she didn’t budge but returned her attentions to her breakfast. A moose has nothing to be afraid of.

 

54 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

    1. We live in the town of South Wheelock in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, on a wooded hill at the end of a dirt road about a quarter mile from the nearest house to the south and a mile in the other directions. We do have a number of moose hereabouts (and bear, too), and we see them fairly often, though the population is under threat as a consequence of recent benign winters that have encouraged an upsurge in voracious ticks. The ticks are especially harmful to weakened animals in late winter and spring, particularly the newborn.

      Vermont Fish & Wildlife has reduced the number of permits issued to hunters from 165 last year to 80. Some have called for a complete abeyance, but the agency believes the culling is beneficial.

      2. Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, on a wooded hill at the end of a dirt road about a quarter mile from the nearest house to the south and a mile in the other directions

        Sounds like a slice of heaven! 🙂

        1. It is, it really is. I bought the land in 1974 with the small advance I received for my first novel, never imagining that I’d be able to build any time soon, if ever. But the novel did very well, and I was able to put up a tidy house, which I doubled in size when I married 10 years later. I’ve been here ever since. Peaceful, spacious, and lovely, with long views out toward the White Mountains of New Hampshire across the Connecticut valley. The challenge, sometimes, is the long driveway. Our plowing bill is considerable some years.

          1. I looked up your ouerve. Impressive. Writing an effective, successful novel is something I look on as close to magic.

      3. You’re a neighbor of my sister (who lives in your town) and a farther neighbor of mine. I’m glad to see she is healthy. Our moose haven’t been seen for awhile (altho the Barton road crew has told me there is a huge male here in my woods). So hi!

        1. How intriguing, Andree. Who would that be? You can message me through FB or through my personal website, if you like.

  2. When the bristly hair on the shoulder becomes erect and the ears go back, as in the photos, keep your distance. It’s rutting season, so be especially careful with a bull.

    The moose around here tend to move in small family groups. Cows keep their calves around for quite a long time, and when twin calves move on they hang out together. Even bulls sometimes hang out together. I’ve seen as many as five in one group.

    That looks like a yearling to me.

    1. Yes, I think you’re right–a yearling and a half, maybe, nearly full grown, though with some bulk yet to gain through the hindquarters. Good luster to her coat. I would never try to approach a bull, of course. We’ve seen a bull more than once when we’ve been out x-c skiing. We take care to turn in the opposite direction.

      1. Indeed, I’ve encountered them (bulls) each time I’ve canoed in Minnesota’s BWCA.

        Oh yeah! We keep our distance. The last time was in late September (dang, it was cold! – but the benefit was NO BUGS). Man those bulls we pissed off just seeing us on the other side of a lake! And they let you know it!

        I’ve seen wolves in the BWCA too – in winter.

    1. Nearly full grown, I think, possibly born in the spring of ’16. Husky through the shoulders but with more bulk to gain in the hindquarters.

  9. They do come quite close to the house sometimes. Once late in the winter a big bull strolled right up to our big living room windows. I wasn’t home at the time, but my wife was. She was loading the stove. She sank to the floor in amazement. Our daughter was was here, too. She was about two and a half. When I came home, she ran up to me and said, “Daddy! Daddy! I saw a moose! With WINGS!”

  10. I recall canoeing down Silver Creek in Idaho with PCC a couple of summers ago, when we encountered a moose browsing in the creek. (Or was it two moose? I don’t remember. I think Jerry took photos.) It was a little tense getting past.

    When I have visitors the first thing they want to see is a moose, and the moose are strangely cooperative about showing up. I might not see one for week, then I have a visitor and BOOM! MOOSE! Yesterday a DirecTV technician showed up to fix a problem. As he walked in, my d*gs alerted us to two moose across the creek. The tech loved it.

      1. Next time you’re passing through The Northlands (Norway for sure, probably Sweden and Finland too), nose through the delicatessen counter to see what bits of moose offal they have in there. Some Noggins I worked with once had an emergency shipment of moose heart arrive on the same flight as their Cloggy colleagues had Stroopwaffels land. Very strong and gamey flavour.
        (This assumes that the Noggins weren’t being ripped off by a butcher re-selling reindeer heart as moose. They’re butchers, so you wouldn’t expect less.)
        (Odds of PCC not nosing through the deli counter already – negligible.)

          1. “Noggin” in reference to the children’s TV cartoons telling the tales of Noggin the Nog and his nemesis Nogbad the Bad ; you have to be British of a certain vintage to remember the cartoons, but in industries where you deal with a lot of Norwegians, the nickname is widespread.
            “Cloggy” for the footwear. Same comment, but for the Dutch.

    3. That must be a trans-continental characteristic of the genus. When I lived in Stockholm, our apartment was directly across from one of the main entryways to a huge fresh-air preserve (Nacka friluftsreservat, for any authentic Swedes). I was out there with a colleague who was visiting from New Zealand, and she asked if I ever saw älg (they translate to elk, but they look like moose) out there. “Oh, no, it’s too close to the city,” I said (downtown Stockholm is indeed quite close). Then we looked up and there stood an älg!

  11. Beautiful moose… Supposedly there are some around where I live, but I’ve never seen one. I have seen a bear and a number of bobcats though.

    1. I’ve seen many bear, elk and big horn sheep in the wild traveling though the Dakotas and Wyoming. Invariably, my belief of how close they were didn’t match reality.
      A bear at 150ft seems like 20ft 🙂

        1. Beautiful picture. They don’t seem fussed with visitors, but I’ve seen them stare down a few people who’d gotten out of their car. Despite signs to stay in your car, someone always gets out to take a picture.
          I wouldn’t want a head butt from those horns.

          1. One way is, you just copy and paste the link to the site where the photo is hosted, exactly as it appears in your browser address bar.

            Like this for example:
            “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moose_superiorxxxxx.jpg”

            (I’ve deliberately corrupted the link by adding x’s and putting it in quotes so it won’t imbed).

            cr

  13. Great pictures and background story. You do, indeed, live in a little slice of heaven!

    We have had an upsurge of voracious ticks here too, in Eastern Ontario. I hate to use the flea & tick stuff on my cat, who is used to going outdoors all the time. But if I don’t, he’s got at least one tick on him every time he comes inside. I’ve gone from being very squeamish to quite blasé about getting them off of him. I am thinking of getting a kitten, and this new kitty will be an indoor cat, strictly because of the ticks. They’re horrible! Just another one of the many dire consequences of global warming.

    1. They are such remarkable animals to see up close, almost dinosaur-like in their odd proportions and sheer size.

  15. There is a moose in the garden!
    that’s a statement i will never make, let alone chat with..
    Thanks, sounds like a landscape photo would have been in order, no complaining though.

      1. I think you have to be on one of those photo-sharing sites. Pinterest might work too. I’ve never been able to work it out either so I share from Facebook or Twitter, but only if I have a really, really good reason because it’s against Da Roolz and I don’t want to push my luck. I suspect Jerry would let you off on this occasion though!

      2. Upload it to a suitable Internet site, then paste the link to it in your comment. Like “Http://Somesite/Contributions/Mycoolphoto.jpg” (but without the quote marks). If it ends in .jpg then WordPress will imbed the photo.

        So far as I know, PCC doesn’t object to imbedded photos, but he doesn’t like imbedded videos, because bandwidth. (I stand to be corrected there).

        cr

        1. P.S. Don – did you say you had your own personal site? That would work, just put the photo somewhere on your site and link to it.

          cr

        2. It isn’t really bandwidth that is involved, at least not computer/network bandwidth. When you insert a link into a WordPress comment the video file itself ends up at the site, just the link. Your browser will display the video by pulling it from wherever it is actually stored, typically up on some YouTube server.

          I believe PCC[E] is more concerned with visual clutter on the page if there are a lot of videos in comments. I suppose you could consider this a psychological bandwidth issue.

          1. Could be. I just checked da Roolz (after I commented, natch) and he says nothing about photos, only videos.

            cr

            P.S. You said “the video file itself ends up at the site,” – I think from the context you meant “doesn’t” ?

  18. We saw lots of moose in Jackson Hole, the traffic came to a standstill as everyone got out of their cars to take photos. We even saw one on the piste. We were going up in a gondola and saw one on the piste, we were safe, but I bet it gave some skiers one hell of a shock!

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