Breakfast Guests

 These two one-year-old twins have been frequenting our hay pile lately.  They must have lost their mother this winter sometime, because we've seen them around town since the cold spell in January.  The snow has gotten deep enough that walking through the snow and finding food has become more difficult for them so they stick to roads and driveways.  Our neighbors have lost their young decorative bushes to these moose.  Moose generally feed on willow bushes and other green sprouts, but in the winter will settle for lilacs or young trees.  We were surprised that they hadn't found the hay before now.  It's been covered up, but our wood pile that's been to the backside of the hay is being depleted so the hay's a bit open to the air.

Tim says that they've been over in the playground at school wandering around too.  He thinks that one is a bull (male) and the other a cow (female).  I haven't gotten close enough to find out. 

I think moose are among some of the ugliest of animals on earth with their big ears, thick noses and gangly legs.  But when it comes down to it, God made them perfect for the environment that they live in.  Their long legs get them through the deep snow and are able to pick their way through the thick willow bushes.  (I on the other hand have tripped and fallen many a time trying to get through the willows.)  Each of their hairs are hollow providing an extra layer of insulation and also boyancy for their large bodies when they are in water.  They are proportioned to browse at shoulder height, not graze on the ground.  They have to kneel down in order to eat off of the ground.

It's not unusual to have moose walking down the middle of the road in the winter time.  One of our friends honked her horn at a moose that wouldn't get out of the road and had to be towed away after the moose climbed up onto her hood and broke her windshield and dented her roof.  Each year people are hurt or killed by happening upon an unsuspecting protective cow moose and her calf.