Call Of The Wild

by Chris LeDoux

A very early mail row+walk+row starting at 4:30. When getting closer to the mailbox, noted four deer on the fields beside the mailbox. They jumped and ran away, and I continued but suddenly realised that there was a big dark creature on the field, which did not move. Took a few shots and realised it was an elk/moose. I decided to walk all the way to the mailbox as it was still twilight before sunrise, and I needed the support of the mailbox for my camera. The elk started to walk towards the forest, but stopped as I stopped beside the mailbox. And he turned his head to check what I was up to. Then I got to take a few decent shots of him, quite far and not top quality - but I had not seen an elk live while I was walking for more than 20 years so this had to be today's blip. 

I include as an extra the view from the island around 4:30 - note the three mallard-size birds in the foregound. It was too dark to identify the species. This shot has much better quality than the main blip.