Moose business...

February 8, 2025

It has been a week of glorious winter, such a change from that aberration we endured last year! Several days have been cold but bright, with sun and blue skies. Others days were milder with overcast skies and snow flurries, more beautiful white fluffy powder to pad up our trails and beautify the landscape. The temperature has stayed securely, well below the freezing point. 

Yesterday was a windy, blue sky day, the wind whipping the snow around, whirling it up in big white-out 'snow-nados', drifting it along edges and smoothing over the yard, clearing it into a smooth, white canvas.

A few oak leaves, released from their marcescent parent, dancing and twirling across the surface with the wind, have etched strange hieroglyphics on the wind packed surface of the snow.

Particularly, on clear sky mornings, the housework can wait. It is the best time of day to strap on the snowshoes and head out to explore. The lighting is perfect, just as the sun is up enough to be seen, sparkling through the trees to the SE, and throwing shafts of yellow light across the landscape.

One morning, our trail was punched with big holes...a moose, or several had come across the property, taking the line of least resistance through the bush.... our trail. We followed the tracks, noting where they diverged from our trail, then rediscovered them going toward the barn. Behind the stone fence at the back of the barn, were 3 moose beds, one a little larger than the other two, so we surmise, made by a cow with two calves.

They had settled down behind the stone fence, close beside pieces of old farm equipment which were left there long ago. 

From their beds, the tracks meandered across to the west edge of the clearing where it appeared the trio had been snacking on the tips of raspberry and blackberry canes.

It is always amazing to me, what seemingly small bits of food sustain those large bodies. They circled an apple tree that is behind the large solar panel,

then continued off into the bush to the west. (the straight line in the picture is our snowshoe track coming to check out the disturbances in the snow.) 

On subsequent forays around our back forty and our neighbour's property, we have found signs that they have been hanging around for a while. 

Two winters ago, we had a moose or two around. The scars on the red maples that they had stripped bark from then, are healing.

The critters also like young poplars to snack on, and will just push into the tree, using their body to bend it over, to browse off all the buds and/or leaves.

Often the trees break. 

This morning, another beautiful, still, 'blue sky' day we headed out, hopeful to find some pictures of the moose on the trail cameras. This is the only one.

We think it is one of the moose calves, and to show the size difference, the following picture is of a deer, in roughly the same spot. It is probably this spring's fawn, so a slightly smaller than adult sized deer. The size comparison is interesting.

Another treasure from the cameras, is this picture of an American Pine Martin, cropped to show how lightly he wafts across the snow's surface, leaving barely a trace,

and un-cropped, showing the snowshoe print for a size comparison.

Happy trails.