Where I live we see elk frequently and are used to having them around the place on a regular basis. However last night was a real experinece!
I have motion sensor's on my drive way that "beep" inside the house when somebody comes up the drive. One driveway is heavily wooded and not visible from the house that one "beeps" twice. The other driveway is visible, and "beeps" once whenever motion is detected.
At 2AM last night the double beep motion sensor was going off about 50 beeps in a row. My wife finally got up from under the covers to look at what was there. I was barely awake and heard her say " Oh My Goodness" at which time I became fully awake! I slithered out from under the covers and she said look at all the ELK!
I went to the window and could not believe my eyes. There were 30-40 elk in my front yard and some were 8 feet away from where I stood in my bedroom. I had to go get my little boy to see this! I went to wake him up, which is a high risk adventure for a 2 year old. As I walked to get him I noticed the lights were on in back of the house. I have several Motion sensitive lights around the place. I passed by his room and went to the back patio sliding glass doors. There were 30 plus elk behind the house in my pasture and actually right near the house on my cement patio.
I quickly went to get Jesse and show him what was going on. He was a bit groggy but was excited to see these huge elk right by the house. My wife and I were looking at the elk when one big cow walked right up to the glass door and began eating some of her potted plants. The elks head was inches from the door. At which time Jesse yells out "Whats he doing" That cow jerked her head up and stared right at us from about 3 feet away. At 2 years old Jesse does not quite grasp the words "be quiet" or Shuussh. She settled down a bit and walked away to eat some low cedar branches and more of the lawn. The dark interior of the house with the lights on outside create a mirror like effect when looking into the house. I'm sure we were all invisible to the elk.
At about the time that cow moved off We heard a loud thump, thump on the front porch as if somebody with big heavy work boots had just jumped up on the steps. My wife went to look through the "peep hole" and she said " we are surrounded, they are coming up the steps"
It's the biggest group of elk I have ever seen at my place. Without a tiny stretch of exageration there were 50-60 elk and 1/2 were young ones. My wife said she was going to shut off the alarm and go back to bed, she had to get up in a few hours. Jesse was fired up and wanted to look at them. He kept saying "touch touch" and holding his hand out as if they would let him pet them!. Now It was going to be hard to get him back to sleep.
I took him back to bed with me and put him between us, Hoping that would get him to fall asleep. I guess it worked for a while. About 3:30AM something hit the house on the outside wall behind the headboard of our bed. It hit really hard! This is a log home as sturdy as a rock too! As I woke wondering what was going on now , that loud heavy crash happend again. I went to look through the window and two young bulls were fighting so hard that the front lawn was coming up in chunks and flying through the air. The bull with his rump facing the house was getting slammed into the side of the house. I never watched such a violent animal display from this close!
Had he hit the house 4 feet to the right he would have come through the window! While watching this of course we are all awake again and at all of a sudden a very loud Elk Bugle comes from the front of the house just out of sight. Here struts up a bigger bull and rams the one furtheest from the house right in the ribs. This is a 5X4 bull as best I can tell in the low light, and much bigger in body then the two which are sparing. They stop fighting and stare at each other, Jesse yells out again what are they doing?
Now I have to really shush him I don't want this big bull coming through the glass! That big bull Lets out another lound Bugle and the younger bulls move away. Imagine a full volume 800 pound bull elk bugle 10 to 15 feet away from where you're standing in your underware holding your two year old son! Jesse jumped in my arms and my wife said can you shoot him? I said only if he ends up in here some how.
Then that bull walked slowly towards the other bulls like he was herding them and he was making what sounded like cow calls to them. It was a strange night for sure. They calmed down and we all went back to bed. This morning I was re-thinking what was going on. I had remembered hearing from a biologist years ago whom I worked with that cow elk which did not become pregnant in November during the rut would sometimes go into heat again in Feb. Maybe there was a cow getting ready to breed and these bulls were positioning for the job? Or maybe they were just playful bulls being warned to behave by the big bull? In anycase I have never before heard an elk bugle in Feb, or seen so many bizzare events in one night.
When Jesse woke up this morning he wanted to get to the window to see the elk, then kept asking where are the elk relentlessly for an hour or more.
