Distractions, Please

I'm feeling a bit grumpy today. There's no real explanation, it's just the way it is sometimes. I'm sitting here at work and feeling very annoyed with other sounds, noises, and conversations made by co-workers. I have a low level headache that I've had for a few days now, that may have something to do with it.

I don't really intend this post to be all about how grumpy I feel, however. I just needed to vent a bit, but also wanted to share a little scat talk.

I took a small group out snowshoeing on Thursday. The day was beautiful. The snow wasn't great, a bit hard and crusty. But it was perfect for recording the imprints of animals. Especially heavy animals, like moose.

We noticed some tracks in and around a somewhat bushy area, and being a fan of animal tracks, I took my group over to check them out. As we got closer, there they were. No, not moose, but big, brown piles of fresh moose scat.

I was happy to inform my guests that moose deposit 18 - 20 piles of scat daily, each pile containing about 180 pellets each. They were very impressed, and were happy to come across 3 or 4 more piles.

In the tracks, I noticed one of the dew claws was injured and bleeding a bit. The blood in the tracks was still very red, not old and brown. So this moose just left the area not too long before we got there. I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of them, but no luck. I guess they didn't like the sound of our loud snowshoes on the crusty snow.