Rare moose spotted

Cabin owners and visitors to the James River Retreat regularly enjoy a variety of wildlife sightings but our newest neighbours have reported a wildlife encounter that is decidedly odd.

Hang out at JRR long enough and, if you’re lucky, sooner or later you’re going to see a moose. These gentle giants are frequent visitors to the Retreat, especially during the last 2 or 3 winters. In fact, we recently received a photo of two young moose wading through deep snow outside a JRR cabin window.

Two juvenile moose, Winter 2015

But Donna and Brad Grandview over on Lot 41 are relative newcomers and had never seen a moose in the wild before this spring. When they came face to face to face with their very first live moose, it stopped them in their tracks.

“We came around a corner and saw this thing standing in our neighbour’s driveway, just a few feet away from us” reported Brad. She went on to describe how it shuffled back and forth a few times “as if it was getting ready to take off”. It took a second for it to sink in just what was so unusual about this particular moose and why it wasn’t likely going anywhere soon. “I couldn’t believe it” said Donna “so I grabbed my phone and took this photo.” No wonder it just stood and shuffled: it couldn’t make up its mind which direction to head.