The Elks' Parade

by Bobby Sherwood

An interesting 6 km morning walk to two nearby lakes to look for red-throated divers. Saw one in the distance, but encounterd three elks while walking. I get very close to the first one standing close to the road eating some saplings, perhaps 12 m at the closest - but when I stopped to focus my camera to it, it ran quickly away. The other two were just crossing the road perhaps 40 m in front of me as I turned a curve. Now I managed some shots at least. The blip is of the elk mother, who accompanied a youngster from last year. They are very large, I think this one was perhaps 1.5 m tall, weighing around 300 kg, so I was happy that the mother did not regard me as a threat to its offspring.