Moosewatch.com

I’m down to the last two bales of hay so the web cam will be shutting down on Friday until next Fall.  It’s been a good season, but I’m way over budget on moose food this year.  The worst of winter is hopefully behind us even though it’s been pretty mild here this year.  Time to let the moose fend for themselves elsewhere.  I now have 3 months of moose poop to clean up come spring.  Do I hear any volunteers??

This makes the 13th moose for this season.  It was too dark for me to get a photo of him so I’ll update this post when I do.  He’s just got 2 tines on each side, no “plate” area, so I’d say he was younger than Moose #12.  Haven’t seen Urkel or the youngest lone bull in several days.  I’m quite surprised to see a new critter at this time of year.  It has to be due to our lack of snow this year.  However a major storm arrives this evening through Sunday morning.

A new bull showed up this evening.  He’s the second youngest of the five mature bulls I’ve seen this season.  In descending order of age, we’ve got Scarface, who hasn’t been seen since he dropped his second antler before Christmas, Alfalfa, Urkel, this new bull and the young bull whose antlers aren’t any higher than his ears.  There is also the young bull born last spring, but he remains a pair with his mom.

The new bull came into my yard gunning for a fight.  He was rocking his head from side to side which is a menacing gesture bulls do.  He picked a fight with one of the cows and then he started to pick one with Alfalfa who was lying down.  I think he changed his mind when Alfalfa got up and he saw how much bigger Alfalfa was than he.

I’ve now used up all the hay I got at the beginning of the season.  I ration it out so I’m finished by mid January when the moose generally migrate down the hill.  However I think the lack of snow this year is keeping them around longer.  So more hay is arriving tomorrow which should last another 10 days or so.

Mrs. Felix’s fifth period class in the Carlisle Area School District of Carlisle, PA has requested one of the as yet unnamed bulls to be called Urkel.  My first thought was to name the broken antlered bull because her class would be able to recognize him on the webcam.   I had said I didn’t want to name them until I found some distinguishing feature that would allow me to identify him or her next year.  So I took some photos and looked at him through the binoculars carefully and that’s when I realized he was Alfalfa.

I then turned my attention to the other bull about the same size who has both antlers in tact and tried to find some distinguishing feature.

When I take a close up of his right ear it looks like that tiny bit of blond hair near the tip might help ID him.

I don’t know who has more seniority, Alfalfa or Urkel.  Alfalfa looks like he might have bigger antlers, but I saw Urkel shoo him away from a food bin once so it’s hard to tell.

Now having named him I would rather not be inundated with suggestions for other names.  When and if I find a distinguishing mark on the other bulls or a cow I will open the comments up to suggestions, but only from classes.  I know I have a bunch of schools from around the country that check my website.

You should be able to distinguish Urkel from the young bull whose antlers are barely higher than his ears.  Sorry I don’t have a better photo of him.

Two more cows showed up this morning.  I thought they might be a pair, ie cow and calf, but this evening I’m not so sure.  I’m more inclined to think they might just be traveling around together.  I can’t tell who has seniority amongst the cows now.  Nor can I tell them apart.  This makes a total of eleven different moose that have visited my yard this season.

I stood on the backdoor steps and took some shots…