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?
