This afternoon a giant female elk loomed up in our side yard and started drinking the juice out of the bird feeders.



Her first appearance was over at the red cabin across the river from us, where one of the bird feeders was on the ground around mid-morning. We hadn't seen her at that point, so had no idea what caused that.

Then, she must have worked along the river, and stood awhile on the bridge munching on willow leaves before coming up the side yard to the back.

She is sporting an ear tag and radio tracking collar.





And is also fairly tame. We followed her around the yard, taking pictures, and she was not bothered.



My main goal was to keep her from eating the vegetable garden. She did manage to get started on the zucchini in the whiskey barrel, but we yelled, and she moved on.

Last we saw, she was leisurely headed along the streambed going east.