Life in a Northern Town

So we're upstairs a few minutes ago -- me on the computer, Orion playing video games on the projector wall -- and I looked over the railing down to the picture window looking out at the backyard, and OMG MOOSE! A mama and a little calf, right outside the window, just fifteen or twenty feet from me.

By the time I finished flailing at Orion and we got our cameras and ourselves downstairs, the moose had moseyed a little ways farther on, but we still got to watch them grazing for a while and took some not-so-sharp pictures in the midnight semidarkness. (Yes, these pictures were taken at midnight, with natural lighting ... a month after the summer solstice. We are far north, we are.)

( A few not-very-sharp pictures )

Moose galore lately. It's becoming routine in the morning to let the dogs out and watch them erupt in a frenzy of barking as they discover the latest yardmoose. Of course, this is not really a safe situation for either the dogs OR us; moose are bigger than Thoroughbred horses, after all. And it probably takes a special kind of stupid to sneak around trying to take pictures of them after the dogs have gotten them riled up.

( Unwise picture under the cut )

Not that they seem to care; these particular moose are entirely unperturbable. I've seen the idiot dogs stand within 15 feet, barking, and they just go on about their moosely business.

The primary ones hanging around have been a cow and twin calves from last year's crop. It's tough to determine moose size when they're laying down, so I'm not sure if the one above is from that group or a different one. I did see what I'm pretty sure was one of the calves by itself yesterday -- either Ma and Bro were around somewhere, or else they'd died, although it's only been about a week since I saw the whole group together and I don't think there have been any large predators hanging around.