‘Beaver’ tries to steal drink from nightclub, doesn’t do very well. The hunt is on for the Swansea beaver
(Picture: Oceana Swansea / Facebook)
Criminal mastermind this person is not. The fancy dress costume-wearing individual was captured on a nightclub’s CCTV after leaning over the bar and grabbing a bottle before making a run for it.
Unfortunately he or she only managed to escape with a bottle of blackcurrant squash worth about 60p.
For video of the escape visit here. Would a beaver steel alcohol? Not until there’s a vodka made of fermented willow!
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When I went to the salmon conference, I brought along the new wooden business cards a friend had made for me at NightOwl Paper Goods. They were a dramatic hit and everyone was scrambling for the information to buy their own. I thought I would mention this good news to the owners of the company while unobtrusively asking for a donation to the silent auction at this years’ beaver festival. She wrote this morning with the good news!
Thank you so much for your very sweet email! We appreciate your referrals tons! We’re happy to hear that your cards have been a hit and we’d be delighted to send some goodies your way for the auction. They’ll be on the way to you shortly.
The modern beaver doesn’t look much different than ones that roamed Oregon millions of years ago. (dreamstime/Marianne Rouwendal-Tollenaar)
Guess what? April 7 was International Beaver Day. As the beaver is Oregon’s state animal, as well as the namesake for Beaverton, take some time this week to honor the water-loving rodent.
Beaverton? Are you sure you don’t mean Nutriaton? My goodness, why aren’t newspapers in the beaver state, that have been duped over and over again in very public ways, even a little wary about posting a picture of a “beaver” that doesn’t show its tail? There should be a memo somewhere in every news room that looks like this:
If you have any doubt in your heart, take a ruler and measure the distance between eye, nose and ear. And then look at this:
Mom in repose: Photo Cheryl Reynolds 2008
Now maybe you’re thinking, oh but there’s a webbed foot in the right hand corner? It MUST be a beaver! Remember that Nutrias live an aquatic life too and therefore have webbed feet also. Look at mom’s delicate black whiskers blended into her overall fur. Beavers have fewer whiskers because there’s are more sensitive and do more work. Want to compare to a baby beaver? Also tiny black whiskers – not a sea of stiff white ones.
Kit: 2008: Cheryl Reynolds
I have an idea of how to celebrate beaver day! Lose the rat! That might be a good start.
UPDATE: Hey, guess what? They corrected their photo! I’m not wild about this one either but I love that they listened!
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Good beaver auction news yesterday from Steve Zamek, the reformed software engineer behind FeatherLight Photgraphy. Steve really got all my attention with this amazing cover of Bay Nature, which is among the finest photos I have ever seen. (Below, along with the very smartest caption!)
Thinking that donating prints which we would have to frame would be a costly donation for us, he generously offered a gift certificate to his gallery so the buyer could chose exactly what s/he wanted. He also says I should tell him as soon as the kits are born, and he’ll come to photograph! Thank Steve!
Hooded merganser contemplating lunch — or a stickleback contemplating mortality – Steve Zamek
The driveway at 26 Mount Jefferson Road all but washed away after a beaver dam on a small pond nearby let go Sunday afternoon, causing a damaging torrent of water to race down the road. (T&G Staff/CHRISTINE PETERSON)
HUBBARDSTON — The breach of a beaver dam Sunday along Mount Jefferson Road wasn’t bad, unless you live in Marjorie Filleul’s house at No. 26. “The water came from the street into our front yard. It ruined our driveway and made a couple of ponds in the back,” Ms. Filleul said. Some of the water ended up in her basement, as well.
The flooding closed the road as crews worked to plow away the rocks and debris that landed there, she said. Photographs from the scene show damage to the roadway and swaths cut across yards by the rush of water.
Never mind that there was about 5 inches of rain last month in Hubbardston and more in April. It’s gotta be the beaver’s fault because who else can you blame? At least there WAS a beaver dam in beaver-challenged Massachusetts. People who let it stay near or on their property. Although that might not happen again, after this story.
Beaver ponds have finally started to melt, making it easy to determine whether or not there have been beavers living in any existing lodges over the winter. The tell-tale sign is floating de-barked sticks and branches. During the winter, beavers leave their lodge and swim out to their underwater food supply pile and haul branches back into the lodge where they chew them into foot-long pieces for easy handling. The bark is removed and eaten as the beaver holds the stick and turns it, much as we consume corn on the cob. When little or no bark remains, the stick is discarded out in the open water. These sticks remain hidden underneath the ice on the surface of the water until warm weather arrives and the ice begins to melt. At this point the sticks and branches become visible, and often extend several feet out from the lodge. These sticks will not go to waste, but will be used for dam and lodge repairs. (Photo taken standing on lodge.)
Nice tip, Mary! I will make sure our sierra beaver friends see it. Mary has the brilliant attention to detail and observation skills that has turned into a very successful website and several well-respected books. I am always thrilled to see what she has written and photographed.
Still, our beaver friend and photographer Ann Siegal and myself both had the same reaction about the last line. “Ack! Don’t Stand on The Lodge!” we both said instinctively when we read that. Maybe because we’re used to beavers in more urban areas where there are many more curious feet to worry about. Or maybe we’re just beaver-centric. I admit, I’ve seen footage of bears, cougars, beavers and other heavy things standing on the lodge and not falling through. But she saw a high school student fall through one! Why risk it? Just imagine if baby beavers were sleeping inside and you crushed them!
When I went to her site I saw that she just published a children’s book on beavers so of course you know what I did.
Along a stream a dam pops out of the water. Beavers are busy at work! These aquatic mammals have unique traits that aid them in building the perfect lodge to raise young beavers and keep predators away. Mary Holland’s vibrant photographs document the beavers’ activities through the course of a year. Do these beavers ever take a break? Follow along as they pop through the winter ice to begin the busy year of eating bark, building dams and gathering food just in time for winter to come again.
Someone get me a cup of tea and a cozy chair, I know just what I’m doing for the next half hour! Mary kindly wrote me back that same day:
What a great event and poster you have, for such a worthy cause! I have forwarded your email to my publisher and asked if they would send you a copy of THE BEAVERS’ BUSY YEAR. If they don’t, I will – I’ve asked them to let me know, but if you don’t hear from them within a week or so, would you let me know and I’ll put a copy in the mail to you. Congratulations on the success of your project! Mary
Thanks Mary! The publisher wrote me this morning and is sending a copy forthwith. If you can’t wait for summer to get your own, go here to support her lovely work. Mary lives in Vermont, the same state as Skip Lisle who installed our flow device, which we are not at all surprised about. The same state as many good beaver articles. Let’s hope we get another lodge some day to be careful of, and just remember that it never hurts to ask…
April 7 was chosen as International #BeaverDay because it is the birthday of pioneering naturalist and wildlife advocate Dorothy Richards. She was born on this day in 1894 in Little Falls, NY and founded Beaversprite Sanctuary just upstream near Dolgeville, NY. She lived well into her 90s, and she would have turned 120 this year. You can order a copy of her inspiring autobiography, “Beaversprite: My Years Building an Animal Sanctuary,” from BWW’s website.
Nice! A great day to remember Dorothy and the good work beavers do. Of course, when I see reminders of beaver day I honestly think to myself, “Just a day?” Our beavers celebrated Beaver day by not showing up last night OR this morning. I’m sure there are many, many cast parties for them to attend, but a little visit would have been polite.
It was rumored into my ear that the trailer for the beaver believers movie would be released today. Sadly, there is nothing so far. I imagine Sarah on the floor in her film closet with a pencil behind her ear buried in Final Cut making last minute changes. Maybe later today? Until then enjoy this lovely film from Arizona of Walt Andersen from Prescott University. I think Walt needs to be a Worth A Dam friend very soon.
BS With Highest Honors, Wildlife Biology, Washington State University, 1968
MS, Wildlife Biology, University of Arizona, 1974
PhD Candidate, Resource Ecology, University of Michigan, 1976 (all but dissertation)
Walt is an expert in field identification of plants and animals, in teaching ecological concepts and natural history, and in group dynamics. He has written manuals for tour guides and safari guides for clients. He co-founded the West Butte Sanctuary Company and founded the Sutter Buttes Naturalists, which evolved into the Middle Mountain Foundation in the Sutter Buttes of California. He was one of the pioneers of ecotourism in the US and internationally (led first US ecotourism trip to national parks of Brazil, first trip to Madagascar for major donors of the World Wildlife Fund, etc.). He also has experience with publishing and is a compulsive and detail-oriented editor. In addition, he is a wildlife painter and illustrator and has published hundreds of photographs in many places. He loves using his images and words to interpret nature for audiences of any size.
This morning started with a power outage and the usual slow dawning of understanding what that means – Ohh no power in this room either, no heater, no computer, no router, no clock. In case you’re in the beavers neighborhood, reading this on your phone, this is what PGE says:
Outage Details START TIME:APR 6, 4:07 AM
ESTIMATED RESTORATION:APR 6, 8:30 AM
CUSTOMERS AFFECTED:1397
CAUSE:Unknown – PG&E is investigating the cause.
STATUS:PG&E is assessing the cause at the outage location.
LAST UPDATED: APR 6, 6:27 AM
Back on at 7:05. So lets talk about muskrats with this article from Jim Mcormac from the Dispatch in Ohio:
I just have to love any article that starts like this:
In the beginning, Kitchi-Manitou, creator of Earth, populated the lands with the Anishinabe. After these original peoples descended into conflict and war, Kitchi-Manitou flooded the lands in retribution. Nanaboozhoo was the sole survivor, along with a handful of animals. One of them was a muskrat. From their log ark, Nanaboozhoo sent the muskrat diving below the floodwaters. It returned with a pawful of earth, and from that the lands were re-created.
— Ojibway legend
I’ve written natural history columns for The Dispatch for a decade — more than 160 pieces on almost as many subjects — but never about the muskrat. Given its prominence in creation lore, an essay on the “earth diver” is overdue.
Although muskrats resemble beavers, they are only distant relatives of the much larger rodents. The muskrat is related to mice and voles, and is essentially a supersize aquatic vole. A hefty muskrat might weigh 4 pounds; a big beaver can be 70 pounds. Beavers also have a horizontally flattened tail, while the muskrat’s is laterally compressed, as if compacted in a vise.
Muskrats are an important cog in wetland ecology. They are prolific grazers of aquatic plants and help to keep marshes open and free of choking growth. Semiopen marshes usually support greater animal diversity, including waterfowl. The lodges literally support ducks and geese, which sometimes nest atop the domes.
To which I KNOW the wetland-giving beavers would reply, “You call that biodiversity?” Hrmph!
‘Beaver’ tries to steal drink from nightclub, doesn’t do very well. The hunt is on for the Swansea beaver
When I went to the salmon conference, I brought along the new wooden business cards a friend had made for me at NightOwl Paper Goods. They were a dramatic hit and everyone was scrambling for the information to buy their own. I thought I would mention this good news to the owners of the company while unobtrusively asking for a donation to the silent auction at this years’ beaver festival. She wrote this morning with the good news!
Thank you so much for your very sweet email! We appreciate your referrals tons! We’re happy to hear that your cards have been a hit and we’d be delighted to send some goodies your way for the auction. They’ll be on the way to you shortly.
Good beaver auction news yesterday from Steve Zamek, the reformed software engineer behind 
