This is one of those posts that really needed a camera. Needless to say I didn't have the camera so I'll have to do a description.
On my bike ride last night, I noticed some people looking in through a chain link fence. My curiosity got the best of me and I had to stop and see what they were looking at.
To my surprise there was a cow moose and two calves. All three were about 15 m (50 ft) from the fence. Here moose browse which means that they graze on the tips of brush and trees. These three went about their business very calmly and did not worry about their audience. They kept moving from shrub to shrub. the calves were on adult food too.
All of a sudden the cow grabbed a young poplar about 4 m (13 ft) high and pulled it down to get to the leaves on top. Every time she let go of the tree to get a couple of bites the tree went back up. I could see that it was only a matter of time before the tree would break. Sure enough it broke and the little guys joined in a very tasty feast. I had never seen a moose take down a tree or heard about a moose taking down a tree to get at the tender new shoots.
In many areas we see moose in ponds or rivers and they have their heads underwater dining on water plants. You see this in Sharon's The Odd Essay blog. Here you rarely see a moose in water. Instead they just eat the new growth of trees. It's amazing how much they eat in a few minutes.
So I watched the moose for about ten minutes and headed for home. Why didn't I go back with my camera? At the time I was watching it was very dark in the woods. It would have been tough to get any kind of photo.
All of this took place about 500 m (1600 ft) from my house.
