I joke with friends and family that whenever I'm at my house, I'm like a hyperactive dog that's always on the lookout for squirrels … except in my case I'm always looking out the window for moose, elk, or just about anything else (including squirrels!). I'm often genuinely surprised that I can spot some of the subtle things that I see, and yesterday was a lucky example. It was late in the afternoon around 7pm and in the distance about 500 ft into the forest I saw a tree branch move in a way that had to be something big. Even though I didn't see an animal, I was convinced that it was a moose! I immediately ran downstairs to grab my camera in hopes of getting a shot of whatever was out there.
There was a single, large, bull walking through the forest. He was sort of heading my general direction, but he would be out of sight soon unless he stopped. I snapped a quick pic as he passed through the aspens and we did make eye contact for a moment before he walked out of sight… at least that's what I thought. It turns out that he sat down, and when I walked a short distance to try and see where he went, I realized that I was only about 40 feet away from him.
The bull was absolutely unconcerned with me. He knew that I was there, but for ~30 minutes he didn't even glance my direction at all. I was pretty surprised that he relied entirely on his ears for keeping track of everything behind him. I know that moose do this, but whenever there's a human present, they also like to be able to see them usually. It was nearly silent in the forest and when I received a text message, it rang out like a car alarm. The bull heard my phone but only barely moved his head, although one ear was briefly pointed right at me to get a better sense of the sound. He went back to listening to other things and ignored me once again.
As the minutes passed and the light dwindled, I wondered if I should stick around since he might not move until morning. To my surprise he decided to get back up and graze on some more aspen leaves before wandering off further into the woods. I was able to get a couple additional shots of him before I went back inside.
His comfort level make me think that I may have encountered him before. It's possible this is one of the bulls last week but I need to compare the ear markings more closely. When he stood up, he stretched exactly like "house sitter" did, but it's really tough to compare moose pictures sometime because of winter fur, antlers and other things that make challenging comparisons. Hopefully I see him again in better light and can sort out if he's one that I've photographed before.
Super fun encounter to end a great day of moose watching.
