Beaver Detectives

heidi08 Beavers September 15, 2016

No beavers last night at Ward Street. We are off this morning to look for them downstream. Its starting to be confusing because if mom is pregnant they should be ready to settle down as a family. And if she doesn’t have a permanent address maybe she’s not pregnant?

I”ll write more later. For now we’ll be looking for this:

beaver-tale_2 — *Gerry Wykes Illustration*

Trying not to worry. No beavers at Annex or Escobar. No beavers at Footbridge or by the corp yard. No beavers at Ward Street or the senior center. If she is pregnant this is nearly delivery time. I suppose she could be holed up somewhere awaiting or tending new kit?

Hmm.

Magic Mornings

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, featured September 14, 2016

This is a magical article from Michael Runtz of canada speaking about his recent visit to an Algonquin beaver pond.

A day of nature revelations

It was a cool and misty predawn when I arrived at Algonquin Park’s Argue Lake. Soon I was watching a large Beaver groom itself atop a feeding bed a mere 30 feet away. It was too dark for photographs but I was content just to watch.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the howls of wolves, emanating somewhere near the far end of the lake. I waited a few minutes after the magnificent chorus ended, and then I howled. The pack replied immediately.

I wanted to wait until sunrise before looking for the wolves. Half an hour passed and then dawn broke.

I quietly paddled my canoe to the far end of the lake, still shrouded with mist. Once there, I scanned nearby slopes for wolves, but saw none. I howled from my canoe and soon the wolves replied, but to the east.

With adrenalin coursing through my body, I watched to see if one might make an appearance. Excitement peaked when two dark forms scrambled down a nearby hill. But the animals were black, and Eastern Wolves are rarely that colour.

A Beaver slapped its tail, informing me that the dark animals had entered its space. Moments later, four Otters came snorting and huffing past my canoe, sticking their heads out of the water like giant periscopes to get a better view of me.

Half an hour passed and no wolves, so I paddled back to my car. I then struck out on foot, following an old logging road that ran parallel to the lake. I walked slowly and quietly, stepping on moss whenever possible.

After a while I left the road and bushwhacked eastward, moving slowly and avoiding stepping on sticks.

Eventually I came to a large pond. After several minutes of scanning, I spotted the head of a large wolf sticking out from Bracken across the pond from me. It stared in my direction, but I was hidden.

I howled, and it stood up and walked into full view. It howled back and began to bark, an indication that it was the pack’s dominant leader telling the intruding wolf to leave their territory. I barked back, and the wolf responded even more aggressively. After several minutes of exchanging vocal affronts, the beautiful animal walked away, content that the impudent intruder was not going to cross the pond.

It has been 26 years since I last had a chance (unsuccessful) to photograph a howling wolf. Thus, I was ecstatic to finally achieve a long-standing goal.

I was also delighted over my encounter with Otters, plus getting a picture-perfect shot of a Ring-necked Duck taking off in the mist. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming; it was indeed a morning when Nature revealed herself wonderfully to me.

Ahhh we’ve enjoyed many a magic morning at our beaver pond, though we never got to see wolves. I am sure Mr. Runtz sleep-clock is broken too, and we probably both wake up at 5 even when we aren’t planning too. The very first beaver I ever saw was from the front seat of this canoe where I spent many a magic morning over the past 25 years. Fate and my cerebellum have decided I don’t get to enjoy the quiet paddle anymore so you can imagine how happy I am at this arrival to my porch, under which I will be able to enjoy magic mornings on forever more.

Save

Beavers in Wales

heidi08 Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's saving beavers now? September 13, 2016

A very nice interview regarding beaver reintroduction of beaver in Wales from CoutryFocus deserves your attention. I’ve taken out all but what concerns us here. I especially love the farmer interview when he explains they were willing to try reintroducing beavers as long as their was an ‘EXIT STRATEGY’ – meaning they could kill them if they caused trouble. Apparently England isn’t even willing to attempt coitus without that these days.

I especially like the part were he explains the unrealistic concerns anglers had – that beavers would eat all their salmon!

Meanwhile there was a very interesting discussion in Iowa where a county supervisor’s meeting was forced to consider what to do about a problematic beaver dam. And they didn’t discuss the options you’d expect.

Beaver Dam discussed during short Board of Supervisors meeting

MUSCATINE, Iowa – The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors met in a short session Monday with the major topic of discussion a beaver dam in a ditch along 41st Street. The dam had been cleared three times this year at taxpayers’ expense but the board chose not to continue removing the dam until the backed up water threatened the roadway.

“As long as the dam and the water behind it is not affecting the roadway it is county policy to leave the dam alone,” Jeff Sorensen, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said.

“If it is determined that it is threatening the roadway then we can either remove the dam or remove the culvert and close the road.”

Remove the culvert or close the road for a beaver problem?

Umm, there’s one other thing folks usually remove when that happens, but shhhh don’t tell them. I’m enjoying this moment. I want to read that sentence again over and over.

Calling all Girls

heidi08 Creative Solutions, featured, Friends of Martinez Beavers September 12, 2016

Granddaughters? Nieces? Cousins who love wildlife? Read this and get really excited.

I wanted to let all of you conservation superstars know about a FREE wildlife photography workshop I am offering for teen girls. If you know of any girls, age 13-18, in Northern/Central California (or farther, if their parents can get them here), that are interested in wildlife photography, please share the attached flyer with them. Of course, the girls don’t have to be local to attend. I already have a couple girls signed up that are lucky enough to have parents willing to fly them out for the weekend.

It is my hope that this free workshop might spark a few young girls to make the dream of being a wildlife photographer into a reality. Making it in this field takes confidence and persistence, which teenage girls don’t always have. When I was a teen, my life took many crazy turns – boys, family instability, etc – and there were a few landmark moments with professional women in various fields that helped to keep me from becoming totally lost and stay the course. Plus, we need more female wildlife photographers out there!

A few details: The free workshop is on November 6th, 2016 in Moss Landing, CA. There are 15 spaces available. All girls must have their own transportation to Moss Landing, CA, and must bring their own camera (this can be an SLR, point and shoot, or even a tablet or phone), EXCEPT for 2 low income spaces (in which we have camera gear and transportation provided). Applications are due by Oct 15th.

Trained for this…

heidi08 Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Urban beavers September 11, 2016

You’ll understand why I held my hands before my eyes the entire time I was reading to potentially shield myself from this article. I could just sense things were going to end badly, though I was understandably intrigued by this headline.

Chew on this: Urban beavers live among us, though rarely seen

Under cover of darkness, stealthy beavers are gnawing down trees and damming creeks — all within the city limits of Springfield. Their most visible work can be seen at Lake Drummond at Nathanael Greene-Close Memorial Park, where sharp-toothed beavers have downed willow trees and even defeated metal fencing placed around tree trunks to deter them.

“There’s a whole lot more beavers than you’d think in the city, especially on South Creek and near the Darr Agricultural Center,” said Ashley Schnake, urban wildlife biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation. “They’ve probably never left but have adapted to the changes we’ve made as the city grew.”

At Darr Agricultural Center just east of Nathanael Greene park, Schnake said a bevy of beavers set up shop by building several dams across South Creek. The dams backup water and flooded some of the Darr Agricultural Center’s fields, prompting a nuisance complaint.

According to MDC, there’s no way to easily or safely capture beavers and relocate them because the local department doesn’t have the equipment needed to catch them alive. The beavers had to be dispatched.

Springfield is in the bottom left corner of Missouri – a state that has never been very advanced in beaver knowledge. I wasn’t surprised to see that they used the pelt of one they killed as an educational tool rather than let the living beavers teach their children about maintaining healthy creeks.

Yeah, yeah yea. Beavers eat trees and block culverts. Who knew? But imagined how surprised was surprise to read this:

Kromrey, an avid trout fisherman, said beavers even play a key role in preserving the rare McCloud rainbow trout that were introduced to Crane Creek southwest of Springfield in the late 1800s. They were imported by train all the way from California.

“On Crane Creek, beaver dams are holding water in pools where McCloud trout habitat wouldn’t otherwise survive when the water gets low,” Kromrey said. “They are real natural conservationists. They were the original detention-basin builders. A lot of soil sediment gets filtered out of a stream because of the dams beavers build.”

Now there are two paragraphs worth reading. Firstly a Missouri trout fisherman understanding why beavers matter, but secondly this real surprise about trout being transported by train from California in the late 1800’s. I originally read this as a story about beings being relocated from CA which is even more interesting because we had none then.

Brock Dolman of OAEC says we did replenish their rainbow stock with our healthy one years ago, so its sadly not a beaver mystery that needs solving. Sigh. I’m sure there are more out there that just need finding.

Yesterday we met photographer Suzi Eszterhas and a group of Martinez children and did a small tree planting photo shoot for Ranger Rick. You will have to make do with our grubby photos for now, but hers will be wonderful I’m sure. The kids did an awesome botanical job, and afterwards they all posed for photos in front of the mural. It was a perfect end to summer.