Early one Sunday morning, we just happened upon this adolescent moose foraging along a stream near our house.  I’m not sure who was more surprised…us or the moose!  This was before we just got a dumping of over 35″ of snow and we haven’t seen it since but it’s encouraging to know moose are around the area.  Given the decline of moose in New Hampshire, it was encouraging to see it looking so healthy too.  We had seen the tracks of two moose, a mother with it’s calf early last year, so I’m assuming this one is now old enough to have separated from it’s mother.  I hope to catch sight of it again for the simple enjoyment of watching it mature to an adult.  I recently read the moose population in NH has gone from 8,000 to 3,800 in recent years due to ticks and other environmental factors.  Hope there is a solution soon or we will no longer have this beautiful creature sharing our world.  Been a while since I’ve created a painting of a moose… I think it’s time for a new one.