Well, you're going to get the third post.
You will remember that I did a lot of cycling. I rode 47 000 km from 1984 to 2019. All the riding was done on the trail system in this city. Starting in 1984 trails were put in . The original trails have aged and a lot of shrubbery and trees have grown up along the edge of the trails. There are sharp turns and with the shrubbery growth visibility is limited in some places.
You will know that from time to time we have moose in the city. Sometimes lots of moose. Now moose don't give anybody consideration. They do what they want. Moose have found that it is very comfortable to stand on the paved trail and stick their head in the shrubbery and eat until their belly is full. Then they come back the next day and do the same thing.
Okay. in my cycling prime I kept up a steady pace of at least 20 kph. Most of the time it was above 20 kph except on the hills .
Well you know where this story is going.
Twice I came around a sharp turn to find a moose with his/her head well in the shrubbery and the whole rear end out on the trail. If I put the breaks on I may disturb the moose. Worse yet I may bash into the moose. Both times I swerved to miss the moose and went within arm's length of the back side. All you can think of is those long back legs kicking out behind him/her
When you get by sigh of relief would be an understatement.
I'm not sure if the moose knew I had ridden by them. I'm not sure if they even cared.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better with moose stories it did.
Lynette was out with her trusty camera and was most fortunate to find two bull moose sparring to find out who was the best. I have spent more time in the bush than most people and I have never witnessed two bull moose in conflict.
This is the time of year for moose to breed. Males compete with some major fights to claim a number of females that they get to breed.
Most times of the year we have moose in our city of 100000. Sometimes there are quite a few. I think these moose are just across the river from where they saw the cow and two calves.
On several occasions I've had moose in my small urban yard . On one occasion I got up in the morning and looked out my front window and there they were...a mama with two calves about 4 m from me. Moose browse. They eat the ends of shrubs and some trees. They were doing a good job of trimming my birch tree. It's fascinating to watch them eat. They take in an enormous amount of food. They don't do much chewing just a little so they can swallow the material.
They're very interesting animals. Thanks to Lynette for being on the spot and getting such excellent photos and thanks for letting me use them on my blog.
Okay, some of you wanted to see photos of the moose the birders saw on Nov.9. So here are three photos. They are very healthy looking animals. I think this is the same moose in all photos.
You can see the gate behind the moose. This was where the birders were supposed to hit the road. Instead they had to turn around and go back 1.5 km.
All photos are courtesy of Lynnette.
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.
