July 17 - Went for a Spruce, got a Moose !

My first day in the Adirondacks involved a trip to Spring Pond Bog, which is located north of Tupper Lake in Franklin County.  My goal was to see the ever-decreasing Spruce Grouse.  Recent estimates put the Spruce Grouse population at approximately 100 total birds....all of them located only within the 6.5 million acres of the Adirondack State Park.  One of the most reliable, and I used that term quite loosely, is the Spring Pond Bog.  This area is owned by the Nature Conservancy although within other lands that are the property of Hunting Clubs, specifically the Kildare Hunt Club.
Here's a shot of the habitat.

The day starts out along Kildare Road for about 7-8 miles before on even reaches the gate that provided access to the Bog itself.  The birding outside the gate is quite good, and I'll have more on that in my next posting.

Once inside the Kildare Gate, one has to go just over 6 miles to reach the trailhead of the Spring Pond Bog,  It was during this stretch of the trip where I was able to see a Moose !

 I have been eager for many, many years to see this animal so I was very happy that I got to watch it for almost 10 minutes, and from only about 20 yards away.  I did not see the Spruce Grouse today, but the Moose was quite the consolation.