... in the middle of the night ...

... tearing up the lawn ...



... tromping around on the drive way ...



... and making tracks quite close by ...



Just before midnight, my wife woke me up to let me know some visitors had arrived. A small band of elk, eleven or twelve, were scattered around the yard scraping away the snow cover and chomping on the grass left over from the fall.

Not an unusual event this time of year. Each of the past two winters we have had several visits by herds ranging from twenty to fifty elk around our yard or bedded down in the meadow just behind our lot. This year we've had six visits by mostly smaller bunches, ranging from the dozen last night up to about forty a couple weeks ago.

But last night was a real treat. I went out to the garage to observe a couple of our visitors more closely. I was standing inside the door shown in the last pic, leaning on the inner door frame. All of a sudden, an elk head appeared, at the left edge and then fully framed in the window, and within inches of the glass.

At one point, she turned her head and touched the glass with her nose, and seconds later she touched the door knob, but the door was locked and that was the end of that.

John

P.S. First thing this morning, just before dawn, stepping outside into the cold and stillness, I could hear several of the elk up in the woods on the hill behind the house calling to each other. Neat way to start the day.