October 16, 2016
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Drooling Bull Moose
Earlier this week, David Brislance and I went into the Superior National Forest to call a bull moose. We try, at least once each fall, to call moose for photography purposes.
I use a fiberglass megaphone that amplifies and gives a nasal quality to human-made cow calls. The sound is like saying the letter R, but in a deep resonating way. The sound imitates a cow moose looking for a mate. This time of year the bulls are in rut and they respond quickly. I use the cow sound so the bull will come in looking for love instead of a fight. This photo is one we called two years ago. He stood in front of us for about 10 minutes moving his antlers back and forth and drooling.
Bull Moose 001 (Photo by David Brislance)
Monday we found fresh moose tracks along a forest service road and decided it was a good spot to call. I made a series of calls but nothing responded. Normally the bulls answer you with a grunt or break a branch so that you know they are approaching. We didn’t hear anything so we decided to move to another location.
We started to walk out in the opening and David said, “Look, here comes a bull.” The bull saw us about the same time we saw him. We moved back into the trees and I called for several more minutes but he wouldn’t come any closer.
Bull Moose 004 (Photo by David Brislance)
The second one was a very healthy looking bull. They are such majestic animals. The rich color of his antlers was just beautiful.
If we had called for a little while longer the two may have met in front of us, and might possibly have fought. That would have made for some pretty awesome photos.
Even though they didn’t come close, it was a pretty exciting morning of moose calling. The only thing that gets your adrenaline pumping more than one bull moose is two bull moose coming your way.
