And the rocket’s red glare…

heidi08 kits July 5, 2012

Well last night about 500 people walked over the footbridge past the beavers home to go see the fireworks. You would be surprised what a high percentage talked about the beavers or the dam, often in a fairly proprietary way as they explained the situation to their companions. “They come out in about an hour”. “They live in that dam” and even “This is where the beavers used to be, but they aren’t here any more.” The only scowl-worthy moment was when a child kicked a soccer bowl into the water and mom went onto the dam to retrieve it. (Grr.) The only out of body moment was when a woman looked fondly at the dam and said, “I’m from Portland but I know about the beavers, I always check that website”. (That website? You mean this website?) The obvious favorite was the little girl who apparently knew nothing about the beavers but pointed excitedly at the baby pond turtle and shouted to her mom in Spanish “Una Tortuga!”

We met a very nice couple who came from Alameda and chose our fireworks display specifically because they wanted to see beavers! She teaches at the college of Alameda and had read “In beaver world” when she was at UCB and been hooked on the animals ever since. We swapped stories about how important they were to wildlife and the ecosystem, while her husband watched with an attentive pair of binoculars and said the skittering patterns on the pond were all made by frogs!

Yesterday afternoon I had a chat with Bay city News, who has always been beaver-friendly. They sell their stories to other outlets so now there are baby announcements on CBS and the San Jose Mercury News lauding the new births.

MARTINEZ (CBS SF) — A new beaver kit has been spotted with the beloved beaver family that has made its home in the Alhambra Creek in Martinez. Heidi Perryman, the founder of the local beaver advocacy group Worth a Dam, said the group got a report about a month ago that a baby beaver had been spotted.

We saw a couple sneaky beavers last night who realized something dramatic was up and laid low for most of the night. I even saw a quick diving kit who never made another appearance. The baby muskrat was out for a bit, two kingfishers rattled overhead and a raccoon hunting around for crawfish. The biggest surprise was the woman who walked by with a white friendly ferret in a basket! When we stopped to talk to her he popped out and wanted to be stroked! Honestly, who wouldn’t want to bring their ferret to the fireworks?

See, I always said beavers bring new species!

I guess a night of heavy foot traffic left the family still hungry, because Jon had this to say about his morning visit at 4:30 walking the dog before heading off to work.

Moses was there with his light at the footbridge, adult popped up followed by baby they swam together up towards the willow on the left the adult dove and the baby swam back to the bank where we first saw him/her and dove. Another beaver showed up below the footbridge and went over the dam. Everybody looked calm and untraumatized.

We’ll be out again tonight hoping for ACTUAL beavers! I’m still waiting for Cheryl to be there so she can snap a good baby photo and I can share it with you! Oh and if you see Jon you might tell him not to be mad about all the money heidi just spent on the new video camera to record our new wonderkit. It’s for a good cause, right?

Stay up late…

heidi08 Beavers, kits July 4, 2012

New Parents? Photo by Cheryl Reynolds

Beaver baby updates this morning from Lory and Jean our reporters in the field. My nose as it happens was busy holding itself to the grindstone, but I’ll be there to keep an eye tonight.

Well, it was a very busy beaver night. When I got down to the primary dam, Moses was there and said the baby beaver had gone over the primary dam and was near by the bank. He had some film of the little one out with a bigger beaver. (He also said that last night the baby came out around 9:30.) It did come out and went back over the primary dam towards the secondary. That’s when I saw it and it swam towards the bank lodge and that’s the last time I saw it I think. There was so much beaver activity from several beavers going back and forth between the dams.. Dad also came across the primary dam.

Karen and Glen were there. Haven’t seen them in over a year. When I was coming up from the primary dam, a lady drove up and wanted to know if I was Heidi. She was the lady that first e-mailed you about the baby beaver in June. She was hoping to see you. She will be down at Armando’s tomorrow night so maybe she will drop by the bridge. Jean also showed up with fennel and apples. She was going to e-mail you so let me know if she doesn’t so I can tell you about her throwing the fennel on the primary dam. I left at 9 and there was still beaver activity going on. Reed did some work on the secondary dam.

Lory

Heidi…fun at the dams tonight. When I tossed fennel onto the primary dam, a big burly male voice yelled from the patio at the Creek Monkey bar, “Don’t throw grass on there! Go pick it up!!” I yelled back that it was fennel and the beavers like it. He said, “oh, ok.” And then a huge beaver came down, climbed full body out of the water and onto the dam and fetched a fennel bulb, and swam upstream. The people at the bar saw the whole thing, were muttering about it, and the man yelled, “thank you”. Lory and I agreed that it is wonderful knowing the people at the bar are keeping watch. The teacher who first saw the kit was there tonight anxious to meet you, Heidi. Instead she, three other visitors, Lory, Moses and myself saw at least 3 beavers, not including the baby. The kit made a brief appearance. Lory and Moses saw it. The teacher was so excited telling everyone her story of the baby sighting. It was very fun. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow night. Full moon. The maniacs will be howling.

Jean

Happy Independence day celebrating the ‘colonies’ everywhere! And best wishes from quite possibly the most watched beaver kit on the entire planet.

The Man of the Hour

heidi08 kits July 3, 2012

With the arrival of the new kit we are getting a the usually flurry of attention. There were articles yesterday in Patch and Gary Bogue, and today in the Gazette. (Although I’m certain I said footbridge not Escobar bridge, but I’m sure the beavers won’t mind!) And I also heard from beaver friend Mayor of Claycord (who also does the East Bay SFGate blog) and he sent his enthusiastic congratulations and said he will run the story today. It isn’t traffic stopping news, I know. But I think the fact that Dad beaver found a new mate and is starting a new family which is being lovingly adopted by the OLD family is a big deal! At the very least, it means that we could continue to have beavers until 2014. Or longer.

Last night Worth A Dam was waiting with lenses in hand, but there was a noisy family with children hopping about and after the usual ‘beaver caution float’ there was a resounding tail slap and no kit appeared. Sigh. Tomorrow maybe? We did see lots of adult beavers, two touching noses which made everyone ‘awww’, and had a great look at Dad who (instead of taking a single willow branch in from our offerings on the bank like the other beavers nipped the ENTIRE bunch at once.) Here’s footage of Dad near the secondary dam. See how his face is paler and bumpier and he seems to have a punk hairdo? We used to be able to ID dad by size alone, but now we have so many adult beavers now it’s better to rely on other clues.

Honestly, we’re a little worried about the 4th of July with all those folks crossing the footbridge just as Jr is waking up. We’ll be there to keep an eye, but hopefully they will have read the Gazette article and will all be standing at the Escobar bridge looking upstream for the new lodge!

Oh and if you feel you can’t live without a festival mug, a key chain or throw pillow, you might appreciate this:

New Kit in Town!!!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 2, 2012

Almost 1 month ago I received an email from a 3rd grade teacher from Pleasant Hill that had been walking home in the evening from Armando’s on the Marina Vista Bridge and saw a big beaver carrying a little beaver in its mouth. She swore that she clearly saw the tail of each, and that they went downstream and into the bank on the west side above the footbridge. She wasn’t someone I had corresponded with before, and I couldn’t know how much stock to put in the story. I thanked her very much for letting me know, and asked every question I could think of. I didn’t want to write about it in case it wasn’t true, but I was hopeful.

Before that we had seen the area directly near the footbridge where ‘Reed’ lives, but nothing farther up. When we started watching for the mysterious new rumor we noticed that there definitely was a new apartment, under the cottonwood, to the right of the bank if you’re standing on the footbridge looking upstream. In fact it seemed to be kind of a ‘hub’, with the beaver coming from above the primary to check in, Dad beaver swimming in, and ‘Reed’ swimming in!

Whoever swam into the new digs, they seemed to bring something – a branch of willow, a long tule, a bunch of grasses. But we had waited nearly a month and had seen no kit. The morning we saw Dad swim in with a huge stalk of fragrant fennel our hopes were renewed. Fennel stimulates lactation. Mom always ate fennel when she was breastfeeding. Mom died two years ago now. Could there be a new mom?

We waited and waited and waited. Weeks had passed since we received the rumor. Despite the fennel, we had nearly given up hope, or thought if there had been a kit it hadn’t survived. Since we heard the story on June 4th I promised myself we wouldn’t give up hope until July 4th. Two days left. Last night Jon, myself and Moses were watching beavers on the footbridge. We saw what appeared to be Reed slipping into the water and cruising the secondary. He was so still in the water, alert and watchful it honestly seemed like he was making a decision.

Promise me that if you ever see this behavior, you’ll know somethings up. We used to see it from GQ when he was watching out for the kits. But we never had so many new parents in such a small place before. Suddenly all those tail slaps were starting to make sense. When we turned to look upstream, Jon said offhandedly ‘Oh there’s a little beaver’ and then it whined and then we knew it was a LITTLE BEAVER and then it was gone.

We argued, checked footage, and tried to verify nose size by comparing it to the leaves. It couldn’t be. Could it? Jon went to check upstream and I took a picture of Moses footage just in case we never saw it again.

Then a little peanut-shaped beaver came sauntering down stream. I was so excited I could barely click the camera in time to catch him slipping away. Looking at this footage I’d say he’s diving better than our last kits, he might be around 6 weeks old.

A new beaver kit! A healthy beaver kit! A new generation in the family! As we hooted and congratulated each other, the upstream beaver came down and popped in to the new apartment to check how things were going. Jon came back and was very angry he had missed it. Another man joined us on the bridge and spoke wistfully wishing the colony was sustainable. Wary Reed made another appearance, and this time we knew what it meant. He was followed by a floating peanut, that drifted right below us making sure everyone got a good look, and then gave a VERY impressive tail slap and dove away.

(Actually it was so energetic it was more like an ‘everything’ slap). There could be NO mistake. Our beavers are a family again. You can bet we will be there again tonight. And in the meantime enjoy this delightful report about our friend Peter Smith at Wildtrust in Kent. Doesn’t he do an amazing job? Beaver festival Kent?