Closing my front door, I caught sight of a large dark animal moving among the trees in my yard. I saw small velvet antlers…a bull moose. Ribs visible under his patchy winter coat, his singular focus on biting the budding leaves of the aspen and chokecherry. I didn’t know if he saw me on my porch but he now had a rapt audience of one—me! Wild animals—deer, fox, coyote—are frequent visitors to my yard, but this was the first moose. Why was he here? …

This Field Note was written by Lynn Arthur. Would you be interested in writing one? Contact Allison De Jong, Field Notes editor, at adejong [at] montananaturalist [dot] org or 406.327.0405. Please visit the Field Notes website at the Montana Natural History Center for more information.