Glorious Start of Summer

It's the most glorious time of the year here. Just last month, it was still snowing. Now, we play in fields of wildflowers.

All that late snow made the wildflowers stunningly brilliant. I've found dense patches of tiny orchids, called "Fairy Slippers" unlike any I've seen before.

Some are tall, and some are short. I noticed one short one flourishing in the shade of all its brethren.

It's the time of year for velvet antlers. I loved the wry "look" that this yearling moose gave my camera.

Our moose population is growing so fast. We now have a male 2-year old, a male yearling (this one), and a mother with a new calf. Yet another mother-calf pair lives a short distance away. It's incredible how fast their population has grown!

Even though the days are so long now, I find myself wanting even more hours in the day because there are so many things that I love to do!

I hope that all of you are enjoying your worlds, whether you are at the start of summer or the start of winter. I know that I am!

Of Moose, Lions, and Flowers

Today dawned stormy, right from the start. The mountains disappeared behind the clouds.

Shyla and I took an easy mountain bike ride. I badly tweaked my neck/shoulder recently, and I've been trying to let it heal. I think it's improving... but sometimes the side-effects of my spinal problems feel endless.

During our ride, on a trail that I have no qualms about taking Shyla on, I found some interesting photos on one of my trail cameras. Our young male moose, who grew up with his mom in our neck of the woods, has returned. I know from my cameras that he'd walked about 5 miles away from here but I guess he didn't like what he found.

He and his mom spent a lot of time near this trail camera last winter. More recently, I also know that his mom and her new calf have foraged near here. I'm not sure what would transpire if he met his mom again in the forest. I suspect that she'd tell him to go away. It's time for him to find his own territory.

The next photo gives you perspective on how tall this relatively "small" moose is, especially compared to the next animal who passed this camera.

The next animal was a mountain lion. She was not huge, as lions go, but she looked positively tiny compared to the moose. She stood stock still in that spot for a long time, perhaps picking up the scent of the moose?

Then she walked onward. I have wondered recently if a mountain lion could take down a yearling moose. I now think it's unlikely, after seeing the size comparison at this camera.

 I will never get over how much fun it is to peek into the wild animals' lives with my trail cameras.

Happy Friday to all of you! We will keep enjoying our yellow flowers for as long as they keep blooming so we'll try to visit them again this weekend.

In the mountains, life seems to zip by faster because the spring and summer are so short. That truly teaches me to immerse myself in whatever is most beautiful at the moment. Right now, it's yellow flowers and Columbines!

Moose on the Loose

I haven't talked about moose in our forest very much recently, although they've still been in the vicinity. A couple of weeks ago, Shyla and I saw a young bull moose, all by himself. Shyla did a sit-stay next to me, and I snapped a photo as he disappeared into the forest.

I'd heard that others had been seeing new moose calves all over our area so I guessed that this was last year's calf who had been hanging out in our forest for the winter. I suspected that his mother had split from him to have a new calf.

Here are a couple of photos of him with his mother last winter. He was the closer of the two moose in the photo.

He and his mom usually foraged right next to each other.

I saw them together, one last time, near the end of the winter. You can see the calf's antler buds just above his eyes.

Then, I didn't see any moose for a while, until a trail camera picked up photos of a young male moose by himself. He sniffed the ground in front of the camera. It's a spot that mountain lions have marked many times.

He was so engrossed in the scent that he knelt down to smell it better. You can see his velvet antler buds in both photos.

He spent a few minutes in front of that trail camera before going on his way, probably starting the process of finding his own home range, away from his mom.

Then, I heard from my neighbor that she'd seen a baby moose with a mother moose just outside her house. This is her photo, that she kindly gave me permission to share with you.

You can see in that photo how protective the mother moose looked. To be honest, seeing this scared me. I was worried about meeting this pair on the trails while I rode with Shyla. It finally happened the other day. Fortunately, they weren't right on the trail but about 30 yards off of it.

I spotted them, hopped off my bike, and told Shyla to do a "sit-stay". It was one of those moments as a dog guardian that I was SO thankful that I spend so much time training Shyla. She did exactly as I asked. I leashed her. I snapped a quick photo, and then we moved further away from the pair, giving them an extremely wide berth.

It was during that encounter that I captured the photo that I showed you yesterday.

It was incredible to get to see the pair, although I hope that it doesn't happen too often. Moose scare me more than any other animals in our forest.

It was also one of those moments that I realized that Shyla has become a true partner with me. We can do amazingly fun stuff together, and I can trust her to follow my instructions. In this case, our safety was on the line, and she passed the test with flying colors!

Every single day, we practice "stays", "recalls", and other basic trail safety cues. Indeed, I take many of the photos that I show here while we practice. For photos, I often put Shyla in a "stay" and then I either call her to me or direct her to run to some other target.

All that practice has been worth it - especially if it means that we can peacefully coexist with the potentially dangerous wildlife in our forests! And, our shared experience with the moose further strengthened our bond. I love Shyla more and more every day.