Moose I didn't do it - This young moose, caught in the lens here in the woods at Ward Brook, has been spotted all over Wiscasset in recent days. (Photo Joe Orchulli II)

Wiscasset Newspaper Editor Paula Gibbs had a picture of moose droppings at the Boothbay Register office when I went to work Wednesday morning.

Curious, I asked, "Where was that taken?" I was told, "On Main Street in Wiscasset."

I replied, "I always have my camera with me just in case I see a moose, as I never have."

That evening, as I arrived for the evening service at Midcoast Country Chapel in Wiscasset, my friend, Richard Casey, asked me if I had seen the "special animal visitor" outside. I said, "No" not having any idea what he was referring to.

When I turned to look, there was a surprise awaiting me in the yard behind the church (next to Sea Basket on Route 1.)

I did a double take when I saw a large animal partly hidden behind some trees. "Is that real? Is it a statue?" were some of the thoughts racing through my mind.

When I came to realize that it was indeed a live moose, I bolted to my car, put down my bible on the seat and grabbed my camera and enjoyed observing the animal for almost an hour.

At 11 a.m. that same morning, Tom Soule was working in his garden on Page Avenue in Wiscasset when he looked up and saw a moose walking right toward him, "The moose spent the whole day here going between my yard and the woods, eating leaves on the trees, lying down and resting.

"I was amazed how it would just close its eyes while chewing the leaves on the trees.

"I have seen two moose here in fifteen to eighteen years but neither of them hung around like this one. She had the whole day here with nobody bothering her," Soule said.

The young moose went to and fro in a large grassy area including Soule's yard and behind Midcoast Country Chapel and the Sea Basket.

Peter Duley, manager at Sea Basket also observed the moose; "The moose has been around here since Saturday. It looks like a young one, maybe a year old or so. It probably lost its mother. People have been out there with dogs and young kids, getting way too close, they don't understand what a six or eight hundred pound animal could do. I think that people should leave it alone. It will go away eventually. An animal like that is just trying to try to find its way home."

"The moose was first spotted at the new storage facility on Birch Point Road and then on Bradford Road and someone said that it was acting strange," according to Wiscasset police officer Willy Simmons.

"It was then spotted at the Ward Brook apartment complex and then on Sunday night it was seen behind the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department.

"It is not unusual for us to hear of a moose sighting downtown but they are usually just passing through," said Simmons.

There have been reports of two moose being killed on Route 27 recently.

"We're not sure what we're going to do. Even a young moose is a big moose and the last thing we want is for it to wander onto the roadway and get hit by a car. Every officer on our force has had to deal with this," Simmons said.

When asked what people should do if they see the moose, Simmons replied, "Stay away from it. We don't want to see it driven toward the roadway."

Wiscasset Police Lieutenant John Allen said, "I have chased the calf out of a half a dozen places, usually on or near Route 1. We believe that the calf's mother was struck and hit by a car on Route 27 a few weeks ago."

The moose has been spotted checking out the price of gas at the Clipper Mart, comparing prices at the NAPA auto parts store, checking on the credentials of the folks who work at the 911 Communications Center, and trying to make friends with Bill Phinney's swans on Lee Street.

Game wardens say to just leave the moose alone and it'll eventually find its way home in the woods somewhere, but Lieutenant Allen isn't sure he will.

Priscilla Stauber was startled to hear from one of her antique store customers last week that the calf had left a pile of shiny black droppings just up the sidewalk from her shop. She put a note under a brick next to the pile, saying, "Leave the evidence" so that she would have time to call a newspaper photographer to witness telltale sign that the calf had taken a stroll down Main Street.