Moose, moose, and more moose!

Shyla and I headed out this morning into a gray day with light snow falling. We were playing with her new toy, making all sorts of noise when she suddenly looked really hard behind me. This is becoming a theme!

You can guess what she saw - a moose who was browsing in a nearby aspen grove while Shyla and I played raucously (I'm amazed he didn't flee). I happened to have a long lens with me so I told Shyla to stay while I took a few photos. This young male was eating aspen branches.

A closer view shows that he is not our resident yearling male who has only a left antler ("Lefty"). This guy has two antlers. I'd guess that he's a yearling based on their size.

He didn't seem concerned with me although I was a good distance away. I was using the equivalent of a 600mm lens and cropped these photos.

He took a bite of an aspen twig...

... and then he departed, as the snowfall grew heavier.

Shyla and I went back to our playing and training. We played some games with a new toy. She really likes it, and it fits in my pocket. It's perfect for having handy to use as a reward for good behavior.

Then, I planned out a route to avoid the bull moose we'd just seen. However, it turned out that another moose was in the same area and my route didn't avoid her. She was a female moose with no calf.

We stopped well short of her, and Shyla sat next to me while I took a few photos. The moose barely glanced in our direction. She was busy eating shrubs.

Then, she started moving away from us on a diagonal, and the yearling bull appeared out of the forest to move with her.

In the interest of safety, I decided it was time to turn around, away from the moose pair, and retrace our route. Interestingly, this winter is the first time we've had any moose around who aren't mothers with calves. It seems as if the other moose (non-mothers) are far less concerned with us than the mothers. It makes sense but I won't bet my life on it.

When we were nearly finished our crazy moose-dodging route, I spotted a controlled burn that was a mile or so away from us. It was so big that it had made its own cumulus cloud!

The Forest Service was burning today because a snowstorm was supposed to hit today, helping control the burn. So far, we've had only the snow squall that arrived while I photographed the moose. The forecast says that the main part of the storm will arrive tonight, later than expected. Hopefully, it will douse anything that's still burning!