Moose Sightings

By A. Sayward Lamb

During the past fifty-five plus years, I have seen hundreds of moose, throughout the State of Maine. Most of these sightings happened while I was hunting or fishing, or while driving on highways, or back on some remote paper company woods roads. Many times I have seen them while walking through the woods. Here are a few of my recollections of those incidents.

The first sighting of a moose happened in the 1940’s, when I was still living with my parents on Main Street, in West Paris. My two younger sisters went for a walk up back of the house, in a field. They were up on top of a hill and walking along the edge of the woods when a large bull moose stepped over the stone wall, into the field. My sisters turned and ran for the house as fast as their legs would carry them. All the while they were yelling: “Moose! Moose! Moose!. Of course that got our attention very quickly. I decided I had to see that creature with my own eyes. I didn’t have to go very far up behind the house when I saw that moose come sauntering down through the field. He paid no attention to me, and continued to walk down to the main highway, crossed the road, and into a huge field on the other side. Prior to that I had only seen pictures of them. I could not believe the huge size of an adult moose, until I saw that bull moose with my own eyes. I have learned since that a some of them stand seven feet high, at the shoulders. No wonder my sisters were frightened.

My father owned a woodlot on Patch Mountain, located partially behind both Hicks Pond, and Mud Pond, near Greenwood City. I used to help him, occasionally. in harvesting bolt wood and firewood. On the particular day this happened I was not helping my father. This was before he owned a chain saw, so we used a crosscut saw or bow saw to cut down and saw the trees into proper lengths. It was a lowery day, during September, with a light drizzle, and my father was using the bow saw. He had a feeling something was watching him. He looked up from his work, and sure enough, a bull moose stood only a few yards away, staring at him. When he looked at the moose, it charged him. Father dropped the saw and shinnied up a tree as fast as he could go! This happened to be the “Rutting season” for moose, so that bull moose was mighty ugly! Father said it kept him up that tree for most of the afternoon. He said it would look at him, smell his tools, then paw the ground and snort! Sometimes it wondered a short distance away, and then father would try to come back down to the ground. When the moose spotted his movements it would come back, which caused my father to scurry up to his perch again. Eventually the moose walked off, so father was able to come home. When he arrived home was he ever mad! He threatened to “Shoot that — — moose.” For several days after that, father carried his rifle to work for protection. Fortunately, Mr. Moose never came back to bother him.

Twice, over the years, I have seen five moose together. Joe Vatcher and I rode in Joe’s truck to the Upton area to go partridge hunting. This was during the third week of October. We turned off onto a logging road that took us into the Success Pond area, near the Maine, New Hampshire border, located on the westerly side of Route 26, a few miles south of Upton. We were several miles in on the logging road when we happened to look down into a basin below us. It was fairly open country, because it had been recently cut over by a logging operation. We had received a dusting of snow throughout the night, and as we looked for partridges we spotted five bull moose, laying down, quite close together. The palms of their huge antlers were still covered with snow. What a beautiful sight! Much to my chagrin, I had not brought my camera with me, but that scene is still vividly imprinted in my mind.

The second time I saw five moose together, happened also during the month of October. I lived in South Woodstock at that time, and I on this particular day I took my Brittany, “Princess,” with me and we went bird hunting. I started from my house and traveled southerly, through the woods, towards the Lee Dunham Farm, about a mile away. There were some old apple trees located in the area of the farm, so I thought it might be a good place to hunt for partridges. We were more than half way to our destination when I began to see all sorts of fresh signs of moose, such as fresh tracks and droppings. I called “Princess” in to my side and ordered her to “Heel”. She did this, and we proceeded to continue on our way, although I was cautiously watching for moose. Soon I saw a huge bull moose rise up out of its bed, and start running past us, only about twenty-five yards away. Almost instantly, four more moose, consisting of two cow moose and their calves, get onto their feet and went tearing through the woods. What a racket they all made! One thing for sure, moose are like steamrollers when they run. The bulls will tip their antlers back and with their head raised high, mow down any small trees or brush in their way. Only when they have to, will they step over some large obstacle. The cows and calves don’t have to raise their heads, but they still go pacing through the woods at an unbelievable pace. Initially, I was concerned about how “Princess” would react to all those moose, as they went crashing through the woods. When I looked down, she was locked on “Point”. When I came home I told my wife, Cynthia, that I not only had a bird dog but I also had a Moose dog..

Do any of you know how fast a moose can run? I learned the answer to this question on a very cold night in late November. Three couples, namely: Taisto and Eleanor Koskela; Eino and Laura Heikkinen; and Cynthia and I, went to a dance in Buckfield. On our way home we came upon several cars stopped in the road, on Route 219, between East and West Sumner. We learned the problem was caused by a bull moose who was standing in the middle of the highway, protecting his mate, a cow moose. If any car tried to pass by him he would block their way. Taisto was driving, so he told us he thought he knew how to get by that ugly moose. He drove past the other autos, and when we approached that big fellow, he just moved over to the side of the road, right next to some high snow bankings. The roadway itself was also covered with hard packed snow. When Taisto got partway beside the moose he stepped on the accelerator and increased his speed. That bull moose started to run right beside us, and it was so close to the car that all we could see was the belly portion of that huge moose. As Taisto increased his speed, the moose continued to run alongside us. Laura Heikkinen was terrified, for fear the moose would slip on the highway and come crashing into the side of the car. Taisto told us he had to go thirty-five miles an hour before he had speed enough to get past that moose! Luckily for Laura, and the rest of us, the moose did not slip on the roadway, in spite of the slippery conditions.

Milt Inman has been a fishing partner of mine for many years. We often fish up in the North Maine Woods, where moose are quite numerous. We paddled up close to a cow moose in my canoe one day, on Newsowadnehunk Lake, while she was feeding. When she put her head under water to feed, we would silently paddle closer. I was sitting in the front of the canoe and when we got to within six feet of her, Milt suggested I pat her on the rump with my canoe paddle. I told him I thought it might be a better idea for us to back off. About that time the moose picked her head up and seeing us, hurriedly waded a short distance away from us

Another time Milt and I were fishing on the same lake, only this time we were in our boat. We decided to go ashore and stretch our legs. There happened to be a cow moose feeding, next to shore, near the spot where we planned to land our boat. Just before we got there, Milt said: “Head the boat toward that moose, and I’ll show you something.” I complied, and as we got close to the moose he jumped out, grabbed his yellow slicker and started flailing his arms back and forth, as he ran toward her. Soon Milt came to a “screeching halt” when he discovered a huge bull moose was only a few feet away, hidden behind a clump of bushes! It was a good move on his part.

During a June fishing trip to the “Hunk”, we watched a cow moose come walking down to the water, in the thoroughfare of the lake, opposite from our campsite. Right behind her was her calf. It was evident that it was no more than a few days old, and was all legs. When this little fellow came to the water, it hesitated, and stood on shore as Mama walked out into deeper water. She stopped and glanced at her baby, who remained on shore. Soon she walked back to her calf and with her nuzzle, she pushed her calf out into the water. I was amazed to see that little fellow start swimming when the water got too deep for it to walk in. With this accomplished, the cow moose led the way as they swam over to our side of the outlet. They came ashore and walked down through the campground roadway, and out of sight. It was a really cute and interesting show.
I know there are many people who travel to Maine for the sole purpose of seeing moose. So many, in fact, that several entrepreneurs offer “Moose Tours”. How fortunate I am to have lived all my life in Maine where moose sightings for “Natives” are not uncommon. Personally, although I have seen hundreds of moose, I still enjoy seeing them. I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to see this majestic animal.