Audubon Society holds ‘Beaver Moon’ hikes in Antrim
By KATHY CLEVELAND ANTRIM – Deep in the woods of New Hampshire, a busy family is preparing for winter, making their shelter tight and making sure there will be plenty of food for everyone.
The adults work through the night, so under the full moon it should have been easy to see the adult beavers packing mud over their lodge that will harden to a rock-like material no predator can break through, or bringing slender trees and branches that will be their winter food supply.
But we didn’t see any beaver, or any other animals, for that matter.
We were on a 1-mile hike through the dePierrefeu-Willard Pond Wildlife Sanctuary around a mill pond on what was billed a “Beaver Moon” hike by the New Hampshire Audubon Society in honor of the November full moon.
There is just about nothing I like better than a story about a beavermoon hike lead by Audubon. When bird lovers become beaver friends the results are a fantailed epic. Just look at our own list of bird-minded beaver friends, which includes Mt. Diablo Audubon, Golden Gate Audobon, the Burrowing Owl Consortium, Sonoma Bird-ing and the Flyway Festival!
When I wrote to thank the author, she said that no one from the conservation group quite rises to the status of beaver-believer, but its a start. Audubon has been noticing the beaver-bird relationship for at least 60 years so we can only assume the rest will come.
Like a child who loves to see her name in the paper, this is transparently my favorite part of the article: under the fun facts about beavers in the right hand column.
The beaver has transformed Alhambra Creek outside San Francisco from a trickle into multiple dams and beaver ponds, which in turn led to the return of steelhead trout and river otter in 2008 and mink in 2009.
Remind me to thank our friend Wikipedia Rick! They say they’re publishing my letter to the editor in response and for a special beaver edition “Where’s Waldo?” moment, you might spend some time looking for the capybara photo they included by mistake! (Hint: it’s missing an epic tail.)
Looking for some nice beaver-bird footage, I was reminded of this quirky Green Heron who would stretch his neck like an egret to keep beaver kits from bothering his fish. Enjoy!
