Meeting Moose on our Morning Ride

On a recent morning, I was pedaling up a steep hill when Shyla sat in the middle of the trail and wouldn't budge. I thought that it was probably a hiker ahead of us (Shyla is scared of hikers, especially ones with dogs). Because we haven't met a moose on a trail in a couple of months, it didn't even cross my mind that it might be a moose.

But it was. In fact, it was two moose, a mother and a yearling calf. The calf quickly backed into the forest so I got no photos of her. The mother was looking straight at me when I went ahead to see what had made Shyla halt.

Normally, a mother moose staring straight at me would cause me to scurry away. But I wanted to try something different on this day. I stood behind a big tree, and I kept talking to her in a very calm and soft voice.

She immediately acted less worried and went back to foraging on aspen trees. It's funny how the tallest animal in our forest is always reaching up for stuff to eat.

After each reach upward, she'd come down with twigs in her mouth. You can see them barely sticking out of the side of her mouth.

In my interest in her activities, I forgot to keep on talking. She looked straight at me again.

I resumed talking calmly and stayed behind my tree.

My talking (an idea from an experience moose-watching friend) made her unworried again. You can see another twig hanging from her mouth.

At that point, I decided that I'd better not push my luck. I snapped one more photo, and I turned to leave.

However, I had one more problem. Where was Shyla?

I spotted her quite close to me, hiding among the shrubs. What a good dog she is! And she's so smart when it comes to moose. Yes, Shyla, I know that I shouldn't aggravate them because they might charge us.... just like they've done in the past.

Although I am afraid of moose, I still love watching them. They are the goofiest looking animal in our forest - so goofy that I have trouble remembering that they are dangerous!

I called Shyla from her hiding place, and we set out to find a route that gave the moose a wide berth as we continued heading up higher.

Black Dog Sunday

Our black dog makes us laugh so frequently. His exuberance about everything on earth sometimes

prevents him from focusing on any one thing.

During a recent recall, a scent caught his nose as he ran to me, causing him to try to look toward it while trying to sprint straight ahead.

Later, in the same session, he refound his laser intensity. His goofy look is SO typical of this full-speed-ahead dog!

Life is definitely more interesting with our crazy black dog in it!

Springtime!

I know that Memorial Day is supposed to mark the start of summer. However, it is only really the start of spring here in the mountains.

Green is appearing everywhere! It's that lighter green of early springtime.

Here is a verdant valley that Shyla and I have explored recently.

Even the valley has towering Aspen trees forming a green canopy over our heads.

It's my absolute favorite time of the year!

A flower and memories

Like so many things in our natural world, these flowers bring back a flood of memories.

About nine years ago, our yellow Lab was nearing the end of a battle with cancer. These flowers were blooming, and he managed to pull me hard enough to eat one of them!

Dogs have the most incredible hearts, living each day to its fullest for as long as they possibly can. Within a week after pulling me to eat a flower, he was gone.

I miss Angel S but I'm glad that a flower makes me remember him.

Thankful for sun puddles and beautiful eyes

Shyla's eyes say so much. As she looked over at the Runner.

Glancing at an odd sound outside.

Looking at me, hoping for a treat!

I love this girl's expressive eyes. And I love sun puddles like the one that she was enjoying.

Wordless Wednesday - The Inseparable Duo in Springtime

Drama within the elk herd

When we first moved here, an old-timer told us that we'd "get sick of the elk" within a few years. That has never happened.

Oftentimes, we'll hop in the car to go see the elk when they're hanging out and grazing nearby. We usually don't need to drive because they're less than a half mile away. However, we've learned that they are spooked far more easily by people on foot than people in vehicles.

When we're in a vehicle, they often stand and stare at us impassively, with apparently no worries about us.

It always makes me laugh when we have an "elk traffic jam". When the entire huge herd is present, it can take a long time for them to cross the road, which makes for a humorous excuse for being late someplace.

The other evening, they were crossing in twos and threes. These two started across the road together.

Then, the front one turned around to look at the the other one. Notice at how their ears are back, suggesting that they weren't entirely on good terms.

Then they both reared up onto their hind legs, looking each other in the eyes.

Soon, their front hooves started flying toward each other. Look at how flattened backwards their ears are.

They continued taking swipes toward each other. I was amazed by how long they could balance on their hind legs.

None of their blows appeared to hurt the other. I think that their hooves might have touched during this spat but that was all. Like so many animal behaviors, I suspect it was ritualistic, with neither elk wanting to cause injury.

Then, they both returned to their normal four-legged lives.

During their spat, they forgot that they'd been trying to go from right to left across the road. They walked back to the side of the road that they'd started on.

For the occupants of the two vehicles stopped by the elk crossing, it had been intriguing to watch the mini-drama between two cow elk.

Nope, I don't think that we'll ever be "sick of the elk"! Instead, we'll probably always go watch them when they are hanging out near our house.

Black Dog Sunday

Concentration!

We love our Black Dog!

Glorious Cacti!

Our Ball Cacti are continuing to wow me with their blooms!It never ceases to surprise me that they do so well at higher than 8,000' in the mountains.

The range of flower colors surprises me. These are the light colored ones.

And these are the darker magenta ones.

Some have one flower on top (like the first photo) while others have up to 16 flowers clustered on the top of the cactus.

Always, when you look closely, you can see the pollen dust released by the flower lying on the petals just waiting for a pollinator to carry it to another flower.

There are two disadvantages to having cacti. One is the dogs' paws... it hurts to step on a cactus spine with bare feet!

The other is my bicycle tires... which go flat when punctured by a cactus spine.

Despite those downsides, I love our cacti flowers!

Thankful for moisture!

It's been raining and raining!

The meadows are getting more green, and the elk are overjoyed. They barely look up from the grass when people pass.

We found a frog (Boreal Chorus Frog) in one of our garden beds.

It must be mighty wet outside for him to have left the safety of a nearby pond.

The world is looking healthier everyday.

I'm glad that our elk can finally fatten up before they migrate to higher elevation for the summer.

And I am so thankful that the fire danger is less extreme, at least for now.

Wordless Wednesday - Desert Memories

This desert rat never ceases to wish for more days in the desert!

Bears marking and sniffing!

Our bears have started their active season more slowly than usual. A number of our usual bears haven't shown up yet, leaving me feeling a little worried about whether they're okay. The most notable one is Milton, one of our two big dominant males. I am watching closely for all of them.

In the meantime, some bears who I don't recognize have been active. Do you see the reflection of this bear in the pool?

Nearby on that same day, a male bear was busy marking trees. This is the same tree that Tiny marked a few weeks ago. This bear is not as big as Tiny.

He went straight uphill to another marking site that is also a new site for a cam for me. You can see a bent over tree in the next photo. I noticed that there was fur stuck to the bark on the downward facing side of the trunk.

My cam told me why!

As you can see, I set the cam to be pointed too low. I expected that the bears were marking the tree by walking under it and rubbing their back on it as they walked. I was wrong. They were actually standing up on their hind limbs to mark it just like they mark other trees. I fixed the cam after I saw the footage of this first bear.

Then, the bear walked a few miles by an unknown route, marking many trees along the way. When he stood up to mark one of them that had a cam close to it, I knew for certain that he wasn't Milton. There was no white patch on his chest.

Back at the leaning tree, a smaller female bear came along to check out the tree a few days after the male marked it.

She delighted me when she stood up to sniff up where the male had left his mark. Look at her round belly after a full winter without eating. She reminds me a bit of a bear who I called "Dot" who died a couple of years ago. I'll tell you her full story in a future post. I still miss Dot who brightened so many days for me with her feisty way of living. I believe that she was going to have her first cubs in the den the next winter.

I have put together a short video of this bear activity. You can watch it here or at Youtube.