Early Bird Gets the Moose!

I rumbled up over the mountains of Cape Breton Highlands National Park thinking, "How strange to be this far from home and to be so familiar with the road". When I was here last summer, the road was all torn up with construction and now, this morning, it was new-tar, smooth-sailing. And, as usual, there were very few cars on the road. It was very early morning. The light was low and slanted but from about 1200m away I saw him. He was right next to the road, nibbling on the new green shoots of spring (seriously, it is still like NH's late April up here). I slowed way down, got the camera ready, and inched toward him. I knew he'd eventually bolt so I just tried to enjoy the moment, allowing my mind to gobble details. He was a gangly teenager. And, apparently, like human teens, when one is hungry, competing thoughts(like humans coming dangerously close) don't quite register as the normal threat. I got closer, and closer, and closer until I was able to stop the car right near him and just watch. So fun! I thanked him and moved on down the road.
It was then that, amazingly, another treasure appeared. I had just reached the eastern coast and I was marveling at how the water looked Caribbean blue-green when, my animal spotter eye noticed a big dark blob that didn't belong. (Can you spot her in picture 3?). She, unlike her teenage counterpart, noticed me from far away and tromped hurriedly back into the brush. Long look or short glimpse, it was still awesome to see my second moose of the morning. I drove slowly for about another 300m and took one more look over my left shoulder just in case she had popped out on the other side of the clump of brush. Ooooh!!
Two little mooselets! No more than a few days old. The color of cinnamon or the perfect camoflauge, orangy-brown of a dead pine bough. They, too, scampered back toward the thick brush where their now identified Mama was waiting. Don'tcha love Cape Breton?Read more