Boise, ID

It’s been about a month, since I first wrote about Ben the Wayward Elk. Almost everyday since then, I pull off to the side of the road, just before the old Barber Park Road and just West of the Eckert Road/Harris Ranch intersection to watch my old friend.

Several weeks ago, ol’ Ben exchanged his light colored winter coat for one of a darker shade. The “nubs” on his noggin’ have expanded quickly. It appears that my once bald headed companion will grow up to be a magnificent four point bull elk!

For nearly a month, Ben and his Heifer pals have grazed the southeast pasture down to it’s roots. For the last several weeks, Ben and his buddies have decided to eat out at the southwest cafe. On occasion, ol’ Ben has left his pals and moved on to greener pastures even further west. (It must be nice to leap a barbed wire fence in a single bound)!

Yesterday, I pulled off at my usual stop. Reaching to grab my camera, I was dismayed to realize that I had forgotten it. No matter, I thought, probably nothing exciting to take a picture of today. WRONG!!

I spotted the small group of Heifer Bulls to West. Where there are bulls there is Ben! As I started my walk, I spotted Ben hunkered down in some tall grass. Suddenly, he jumped up on his hind quarters, and flailing his front hoofs hopped in the air, like a bucking bronco. He did this three or four times.

Next, he shoved his antlers deep in the tall grass and thrashed his head from side to side. For a minute or two, I thought he was trying to rub the velvet covering off his ever growing antlers, but I was wrong.

He raised his head up from the grass and shook it violently. Almost instantly, I spotted what I thought was a black figure on top of his rack. For a second or two, I thought maybe he was fighting off a wolf.

I spotted a man walking down the greenbelt in my direction but I was too wrapped up in watching Ben. He had taken off running full bore in my direction. Whatever he had stuck on his antlers, was now flapping in the breeze over his shoulders and over his back. The closer he got to me, the more it looked as though he had a big black sail flowing over his head. I finally realized , it was a strip of black plastic-probably used by the farmer to dam up his irrigation laterals.

By then the Heifer Bulls had wandered back towards the southeast which was to my left. Ben ran full tilt towards them, black plastic stuck on the tips of his antlers and flowing over his back like a Red Baron Scarf.

His antics scared the heck out of the Heifer Bulls. They ran for cover, scattering from one end of the field to the other. The whole scenario, reminded me of the Headless Horseman, chasing Ichabod Crane!

As Ben ran off the herd, the man approached me and we started to chat. I found out the gentleman had lived in Boise, as had I for most of his life. “I’ve been around here for nearly 40 years,” He announced. “And it never fails to amaze me what sites one will see!” As it turned out, the gentleman had spotted Ben with plastic on his antlers the previous morning, from another vantage point.

As the stranger and I parted company, Ben took one look at the scattering herd. As if he had enough fun for one day, old Ben scraped his antler along the grass, and with one swift shake of his head, blew off the annoying black plastic, like one discards a jacket!!