One day this week I took the opportunity of a gap between my US workday and my Asia workday to get out for a late afternoon weekday hike up Three Ponds Trail.
The trout lilies that I’d last seen as clumps of speckled leaves (dusted with snow) have flowered
And the hobblebush is also starting to bloom
But the real highlight of this outing, apart from the fact that I seized the gap in my meeting schedule and made it happen, was that I saw a moose.
The moose and I were across a small pond from each other. We looked at each other for a few heartbeats, and continued on our ways. I didn’t try to take a picture with the moose in it, but the yellow arrow shows where it was.
Bull moose start their annual antler growth in the Spring, and I didn’t see any signs of antlers on this individual. I tentatively identify it as female due to the absence of antlers, but also because of its light colored face and the size of its dewlap (also called a bell).
According to a reliable source on the internet, moose typically calve in mid May to early June. I didn’t see a calf, nor did this moose appear pregnant (though all my knowledge of what a pregnant moose looks like comes from a 5 minute image search). What I can confidently say is that it was big. It was definitely a thrill to spot this largest inhabitant of the White Mountains, but I was also happy to have a pond between it and me.