Moose are out !

[peakbagger]

Local news reported three car/moose accidents in Carroll NH (Twin Mtn area) this weekend. I just noticed some moose sign in one of the usual spots at the intersection of RT 2 and RT 115 this weekend.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Does this mean they change their habits in the spring?

 

[skiguy]

Never realized they went in. All kidding aside. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[peakbagger]

Does this mean they change their habits in the spring?

Yup, mom has yearlings that hang around and she drives them off when she has a new calf in the spring. The yearlings don't really have established territory so they tend to roam and get pushed out of other territories and frequently they end up along the roads in wet areas. Moose also like the minerals from road salt that accumulate along the sides of the roads. Early green shoots also tend to show up in sunny wet spots along roads early so they are looking for greens. They don't tend to roam a lot while there is a snowpack, but once its gone and the weather warms up they usually appear fairly quickly on the road sides and the accident reports start piling up. I have wetland at the end of my road that connects up with a series of drainages that cross Route 2, there is usually a cow and calf that appear but I normally only see prints as they retreat into the wetland during the day. They used to roam the neighborhood but an increase in dogs seems to keep them away. Unfortunately later in the season at least one ends up dead on RT 2 from a car hit. During the peak of the moose population explosion in the 1990s there were 9 moose killed two years in a row and 3 people as a result of moose accidents. Lowes store in Randolph usually has a couple of cars parked there that have hit moose.

For several years during the population boom I would explain to folks that my annoying household pests were moose . The winter tick is still doing a number on them, VT just droppednext years hunt to 14 moose and NH is also dropping its hunt. Northern Maine has had a population boom of moose and they are increasing the bag limit as the moose are raiding farms particularly broccoli farms. http://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/view/69

 

[Stan]

... Northern Maine has had a population boom of moose and they are increasing the bag limit as the moose are raiding farms particularly broccoli farms. http://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/view/69

Another thing to like about moose.

 

[David Metsky]

A friend was one of those incidents or an additional one, he hit a moose closer to the notch.

 

[nartreb]

It's still too early in the season for momma moose to drive their yearlings away, but moose will be venturing out of their winter hideouts starting about now, looking for new shoots, mostly under cover of twilight.

Mid-may a few years ago, this guy and his momma were grazing on fir, presumably on their way "home" after dawn.

http://www.davidalbeck.com/photos/2009/osgood/i48.jpg

 

[JustJoe]

I didn't know you got the boot at one year old if you're a moose. Anyway, on an off trail excursion in the Berlin area, I came across (3) cow's with calf's on that trek. I saw no yearlings at all. It was the 18 of May. This is one that mom did not no I was nearby. I saw her and was trying to take a picture but she wondered off. I heard a cry and noticed this little one. I know she did not here me because I don't think she would have left. Probably went to go eat. The other 2 I stumbled on let me know under no uncertain terms, get the hell out of here. It seems I'd found a darned nursery. I was not nearly as close a this picture would lead you to think.