We got a call from our neighbor telling us there was a moose heading up the road. So we ran out and there it was just at the corner of our property. I ran back to get my camera while Rich and our neighbor Tom watched him (I think it was a male). It was bent down on it’s front knees eating grass.

Though it wasn’t quite dusk, I couldn’t get a good picture. The flash, I now realize, was focusing on the white street sign and everything else was dark. Without the flash it was blurry. So I tried a movie. The light was perfectly fine for that somehow, but my shaky hand and the fact that my best attempt to walk towards the moose steadily was unsuccessful, rendered that pretty shaky. You can see if you want, though. It’s more like your typical loch ness monster video. I sure wish Shelley had been here! (Of course I think that every time I want to take a picture of something special to share.)

It was a young moose – probably a yearling and not afraid of much – typical for moose. There are enough moose around that there is now a moose crossing sign down on the main road about 1 mile from our house.

After it wandered off into the woods, Tom and Joe (another neighbor who had come down the road to see) were excited because they could hear a woodcock in the woods. I couldn’t recognize it’s call among the peepers. Eventually it came out of the woods, circled around above us and then landed in our front yard and continued it’s mating call (umm – no that’s not why Tom and Joe were excited). Now I could easily hear it’s crazy call. There is a good recording of the sound on this page from the SUNY Stony Brook website. It’s the 3rd from the bottom.

The woodcock has a crazy mating ritual which includes a lot of big spirals in the sky. We’ll be watching out for him in the next few weeks. Him and the darned porcupine that was also wobbling up the road during all of this. That is something we can do without.

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