Moose Encounters

Well, we have been seeing a LOT of moose around lately. I understand from long-timers that this is the baby-having time in the moose year. The little newborns are supposed to be something to see, so we're keeping a lookout!

The first sighting was from my work - incidentally the same location where I had my first moose sighting, so that's one full circle made as my first year here comes to a close!

This is the youngster of the Momma and Kid duo that we see relatively often hanging around where I work. He meandered around and snacked on some foliage for awhile. Then he came to rest at the spot on the road where the smokers at work have to go stand to smoke. He stood there for quite awhile, peacefully hanging out and the smokers were starting to worry because they needed to go smoke. No one wanted to approach the little guy because Momma was somewhere around. Finally our biggest, loudest smoker went outside and yelled at him to "Git on back to Momma!" and he (the moose) ran away. Which is nothing to be ashamed of - we all run away when this particular person yells. :)

The next sighting came a couple of days later. Art and I were out with a coworker and her husband to hear a lecture on the Expanded Mind at UAA (!), and when we came out of the library...

This one was hanging around outside, again snacking on foliage. We kept a respectful distance, but didn't hang around too long - she was standing between us and and some post-lecture pie! We waited a few minutes, and she wandered across the sidewalk to get a drink, after which we judged it safe to cross. She kept an eye on us as we went past, but we didn't make any sudden moves or do anything that we thought might upset a large ruminant. And everything turned out fine.

You really do want to pet them and give them names and leave food out in your yard so they keep coming around. Oh, I don't do any of those thing, and I won't, because it would be wildly irresponsible. Also, I'm not trying to anthropomorphize them or pretend they are anything other than large, wild animals that are not to be trifled with. But the neat thing about moose is that they really don't seem to want naything other than lots of plant matter to eat and to be left alone. I suppose the best thing we can do for them is not harsh their mellow.

Random updates

The hours of daylight are pretty long now, pretty close to the 12 hour mark. So the "long dark" is pretty safely behind us! It continues to warm up (relatively) and has been hovering around the balmy 32 F mark for the past couple of days. We have been throwing open the windows for a half hour or so both here at home and at work, just to get the "fresh spring air" in and let a little of the winter funk out. Of course, this is a bit deceiving, and is apparently a part of why people just kind of snap around this time of year sometimes. It feels like spring is on its way, and indeed it is...but not any time too soon. We can expect pretty good piles of snow throughout March and April, and sometimes even into May. So this isn't spring yet! We really aren't minding, though. We are pretty well acclimated, I think. I was walking around outside today a couple of times with my coat hanging open, and didn't feel cold at all.
Also, saw a moose at work again yesterday - and everyone in the room stopped and came to the window to watch him! They're really kind of cute, in a goofy way.

Moose sightings!

We've seen quite a few more moose lately, possibly because the cold has really set in, possibly just because of luck. Last night on our way home there were two walking down the street, but we could not stop for pictures because there was a bit of traffic. "Damn the luck!" we said.

However, when Art dropped me off this morning, two moose were just sort of hanging out in front of my workplace...

The snow isn't that deep, they are laying down! (Although this photo would be great to use to fool kids of the future - "Oh the snow got so deep in the winter of '09 that it was up to the moose's bellies! They couldn't even walk, just sort of swim along! And we had to walk uphill to work - both ways!" They wouldn't believe it, though. ) They kind of hung out there for a few hours, and everyone kept going to the windows to look at them. They are great big animals, and pretty peaceable seeming. We would be standing there looking, and they would just kind of turn their heads every once in a while to check out what was going on, and look at us for awhile, then turn back around. Finally, they got enough of the attention, stood up, stretched and wandered off. On their way out, though, they posed picturesquely under the company logo sign hanging on the side of our building! They stayed long enough that several of the braver souls ran out there and got some pictures Yes, we are a real Alaskan outfit - moose go out of their way to provide us with promo pics!

Meanwhile, on the other side of midtown, when Art got to work, there was one hanging out across the street from his work. He took a picture from a window.

He is a little harder to make out, but he's just in from of the tree. Apparently he had some kind of ninja-moose stealth skills or possibly a Romulan cloaking device, as several of Art's coworkers walked right past the thing - within two feet in one case - and never even noticed it. Ghost moose - there may be one right in the room with you!