A breathtaking encounter

After finding no owls NW of Calgary two days ago, 21 May 2013, I turned around and started heading for home. If one is honest, it is always a little disappointing to drive for hours and find nothing - other than a couple of Ravens : ) As I rounded the first bend in the gravel road, I caught sight of a small bird, which turned out to be a Townsend's Solitaire (and its mate). After driving further, I could see an animal's rear end way down the road. As I got closer, I realized it was a Moose! Normally, if I see a Moose, it's way off in the distance and even then, it still turns and heads off in the opposite direction. However, this one stayed just where it was, feeding on the bushes at the edge of the road. I drove closer, expecting it to disappear into the trees, but it continued feeding and even moved closer to where I had pulled over, and ended up maybe 25' away, on the opposite side of the road. These animals seem mighty big when they are close, ha, and I began to feel rather uneasy, knowing that wildlife can be unpredictable. After 10 minutes or so, it jumped over the barbed-wire fence and continued feeding. I was surprised to see white hair/fur in places - do Moose normally have white on them like this?

I'm adding the link to my photostream on the ipernity website. Though I only joined yesterday, it was really just to find out what their layout was like. Actually, it looks very similar to the old Flickr. With almost 9,000 images posted on Flickr, Flickr will have to remain my main site, but I might just add a few photos to ipernity, if and when I have time : ) I've already found two of you there, which was such a welcome surprise!

www.ipernity.com/doc/293827

"Problems" already with the new Flickr! "Bad Panda" instead of "Hold your clicks..." Can't add to groups any more.