What an adventurous day! The morning began with a nice pair of moose, but they were grazing around some houses and it wasn’t the best opportunity for great shots, unfortunately. Dense low clouds ...
What an adventurous day! The morning began with a nice pair of moose, but they were grazing around some houses and it wasn’t the best opportunity for great shots, unfortunately. Dense low clouds and fog rolled in, but there was too much day left to give up on seeing more wildlife. I rolled the dice and headed out into the thick soup of clouds, and the timing really worked out well. Shortly into the third hike of the day, I stopped for several minutes to photograph a hummingbird that had perched on a branch near me. After about eight minutes of snapping shots of him, I heard the tell tale sound of a moose – big branches breaking in the distance. I said my good byes to the hummingbird and began walking toward whatever made that noise. At first he was really tough to see, but eventually he worked his way out of the thick brush and we made eye contact. In total there were three moose (2 young males and 1 mature female). The small male was quick to show his comfort level and he sat down not far from me. The other male was more timid, and the female could have cared less about all of us. I took a bunch of quick photos, but decided to leave them alone and hike further into the forest. Heavy rain followed by thick fog came and went on the short ~ 2 mile loop. I decided to walk back toward the young bulls to see if I could spot them again, and I inadvertently walked much closer to them than I intended. It’s amazing how well they can blend in sometimes, even when you’re looking for them! I stepped back around 50 feet to give them more space and just sat along and watched. Over the next hour, the smaller male would eventually walk to within ~4 feet of me. At that point, I stopped taking pictures with my main camera and just switched to my phone. He walked behind and around me all while I stayed in the same spot. It was really incredible that he was so trusting that he would kneel down and turn his back to me even though we were just a few feet away. The last little piece of this story was a funny goose that flew in ( can be seen in the video above ). The lone goose began honking incessantly, and the moose definitely did not like the noise. The moose’s demeanor noticeably changed and almost seemed to gesture at the goose with his snout while making eye contact with me. I took that as my cue to try and help, and so I walked on over to the goose just to see if the bird would shut up or not. Comically, the goose kept on honking and walked right by me, but then eventually flew away. The moose relaxed, went back to grazing and I headed on back home. Super fun encounters.
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