Question of the Week: Wildlife sightings

What is the coolest wildlife sighting you've ever had (outside of a zoo)? Most of my best sightings have been of moose, thus the picture. We saw this mangy young moose when Sam was just a few months old and got some pretty good pictures of him. I guess I got thinking about this topic because yesterday on my way home from grocery shopping, I had 2 deer cross the road in front of me. Then this morning, Jim saw a bear in our driveway! And earlier this summer, we enjoyed watching a whole family of foxes that had a den down in the rocks in our front woods. So we get to see quite a bit of wildlife!

Here are my three favorite "moose memories":

1) Most every summer when I was growing up, we would spend a week or at least a few days at a cabin that is owned by my extended family. Out in the woods, at the edge of a large pond, it is a prime viewing area for wildlife! One of our favorite activities was to sit on the large screened porch with binoculars, scanning the far edge of the pond for moose or deer. It seemed that we would see some most every day. Once when I was probably 10 or 11, we kept seeing some funny movement across the pond. All we could really see with the binoculars was something light-colored splashing in the water. This went on for hours. Finally my dad canoed across the pond to see what it was. Turned out that two bull moose had had a fight and their antlers got tangled together. One of the moose was dead, and the movement we had seen was the other moose, trying to get its antlers free from the dead one. (The light-colored thing we saw was actually the antlers--we couldn't really see the rest of the moose since it was in the water.) We ended up calling the Fish & Game, who sent out their moose expert and some other men to help. They had to use a saw to cut the antlers apart. We got to keep one of the antlers from the dead moose, which my dad still has mounted on his garage. The other moose was rather feisty when it was freed, but soon settled down and just sat on the shore for a long time. My dad was able to get some really good pics of him from the canoe. Eventually the Fish & Game had to kill that moose, because they determined that he had nerve damage and couldn't move far, from all the trauma caused to his neck from trying to get free. Three of my cousins were staying at the cabin with us that week. I have such a fun memory of the youngest one, Chad, running around with a little hatchet, trying to give it to the Fish & Game guys in case they needed it to chop the antlers apart. :)

2. My second memory also involves the cabin. This was probably when I was 14 or 15; I can't remember for sure. We noticed a mother and baby (or two babies?--that part is fuzzy in my memory) moose off on the left shore of the pond, not far from the cabin. My older brother and I got in the canoe and paddled quietly over in that direction. We were able to get some pictures of them as they ate reeds in the water. It's a very special memory of something neat that my brother and I got to share. :)

3. This memory is from just a few years ago, before I had Sam. When we lived in our trailer, I was driving up to my parents' house every week to do laundry. One day I was just rounding the corner before their house, thankfully going pretty slow since I was almost ready to turn, when 3 moose crossed the road in front of me. It looked like a whole family--dad, mom, and youngster! It was so neat and so unexpected. I sure wish I had had a camera, but they went so fast that I doubt there would have been any way to get a good picture.

So those are some of my favorite wildlife sightings. I'd love to hear yours!! :)