The Wildlife

I was hoping to not write this particular post until I had finally seen THE creature of the North - a moose. Unfortunately since moving to the near North in early June (yes, more than 3 months later) I still haven't seen any stupid moose.

But I have seen tons of really cool animals that I didn't get to see back home. Of course I didn't have my camera handy when I actually saw them, but here are some stock photos...

Black Bear

The Black Bear:

I saw my first black bear about 2 weeks into living in Kirkland Lake. He was crossing the road as I was driving to work one morning. I only caught his big ol' bear rump though, so technically I only saw half a bear.

Next I saw a HUGE bear at the dump one day at work. We were there dropping off a load of tires we were moving from one dump to another. Of course I named him "Charlie" because every bear needs a name.

I saw a small little cub crossing the road once again at work. I can't remember what I named him, but I think it was Barry.

When Chris and I moved to Sioux Lookout Chris caught sight of his very first bear, but it was road kill bear, so I didn't name him since he was dead.

Fortunately Chris got to see his very first live bear this Sunday on our way home from the grocery store. We had only been on the long dirt road for about 20 minutes, had just passed a bunch of people fishing off of a bridge, when I look over the side of a very deep ditch (we're talking 20 feet down either side) and saw a big ol' bear face. I said "bear! bear!" and Chris stopped the car. Before I could even say "Chris, don't go out there yet" Chris was out of the car. You could imagine my panic. I got out of the car and while Chris was Oooh-ing and Aahh-ing over the bear (which was walking away probably 15ft down the ditch and 30 feet away from us) I was looking around for other bears. The bear was large, but not so large that the momma bear couldn't be far away. When I asked Chris what he was thinking, he said "I saw a bear". Ug. Well, I named that one Gunter - said with the German accent.

Bald Eagle

Next animal - Bald Eagle!

My first time driving into town (about an hour into my drive)  a bald eagle took off from some nearby bushes and flew right in front of my car. He was beautiful! We have bald eagles back home, but this one was cool enough to mention.

So when Chris and I were moving to Slate Falls, with the infamous trailer, we came across this random, long-legged, big winged bird. This bird was dumb. It stood about 4ish feet off the ground and decided to run away WITH the car, as in alongside the car, instead of moving off into the bushes. It ran with our car for about 50 feet, then just stopped. But this is what I saw (finally had my camera).

Canadian Sandhill Crane

After some research, including hitting my mom up in case she knew, I have determined that this is a Canadian Sandhill Crane. It looks like this >>>

As you can see by this stock photo off the internet - they are typically stupid because they stand in the middle of the road.

Ruffled Grouse

But no bird of the north is as stupid as (drumrollllll!) the Grouse! Everyone just calls them partridges though. This silly little bird was my first personal roadkill up north. When I was coming upon it in my Ford F-150 work truck (named Johnny, yes I name everything) I thought that it was just a normal, somewhat intelligent bird, and it would just fly away before my truck got close. Little did I know that this bird loves to run out in the road and loves to get killed. It reminds me of my friend Lauren's theory on the suicidal chipmunks that live near her street back home in Brockville. So I hit that little bird, and while I was all sad and everything, Ashton (one of my student at work) said "don't worry, I saw him walk away, you missed him" while Corey flat out told me "he's dead, really dead". Thanks Corey ;) I found out though, thanks to Mike from the Temiskaming Stewardship Council, that partridges/grouses are so stupid because their primary diet consists of berries from bushes. And what happens to berries when they sit on the bush too long? They ferment and turn into alcohol inside. So basically this stupid bird is so stupid because he's DRUNK!

Blue Winged Crow

And finally, the wildlife with the most annoying personality in the North - the crow! I arrived in Kirkland Lake just in time for mating season. They are the loudest and most brutal birds EVER! and worst of all, they are literally everywhere. They plague people's attics and keep them up all night long, they wake simple cottage dwellers like me at 6am on a Saturday. Rude, just rude.

Common Loon

I would have made a special section for the "Bird of the North" - but we have loons back home (and we have crows and grouse too, but the northern ones have more spunk and/or less brains).

Moose - taunting me!

I'm also hoping to catch sight of a wolf one day, according to my old neighbour in KL who worked with wolves in Algonquin Park, they are completely docile but very secretive. And of course I want to see a caribou when (and that's still up in the air) the Caribou project starts in Slate Falls. But most of all, I want to see a BLEEP BLEEP BLEEPING moose. Thank you very much.