wildlife

I was daydreaming. I was sitting in the back seat of Patrick's car, idly watching the scenery go by outside the window as we drove to work.

I then noticed some animals. Initially, just glancing, I assumed they were deer. After all, we were running parallel to the Arkansas River, and we often see deer--lots and lots of deer, up to 100 head at a time. But these deer were on the north side of the road, a good distance from the river, and we don't normally see them on the north side.

Then I noticed that there were 2 bucks, and they were fighting. And, wow! Were they nice bucks...hold on, those weren't deer, they were ELK!

And that's what I said, I blurted out, "Look, those are ELK! Holy Crap!"

Kev looked, saw them, Patrick looked and quickly pulled over to the side of the road.

We sat there a few minutes just watching them. They got spooked and took off, running west, the same direction we were going.

Elk. Not something I've ever expected to see here. I've heard rumors that there are some in the area, but I'd not paid much attention because, well, you hear all kinds of things about wildlife.

Six elk. Four cows, and two bulls. Not big bulls, but still bull elk. (Kev is the one who said they weren't big, cause he thinks to look at the antlers. Me, I just noticed that they weren't deer, and I did figure out they were elk, but I don't consciously think to check antlers for size.)

It was so cool. It was cool to see them, and it was cool that I'm the first one in our car to realize that they were really Elk. Cool.