pictures – Page 14 – Worth A Dam

Halcyon Days of Summer

heidi08 New Species, pictures January 7, 2010

Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days!

Halcyon is the Greek name for the newest residents of our pond. The talented Cheryl Reynolds snapped these remarkable pictures. The ancient Greeks named them after Alcyon, the eldest sister in the pleiades. They believed their kingfishers nested on the ocean and made the waves calm during the two weeks before winter solstice when their eggs were hatching. It was a great gift to sailors. Hence the term “Halcyon Days” which was quoted by Whitman and others. The only Kingfisher we have in most of the US is this: the belted Kingfisher, named for the obvious band around his neck. Although the Kingfisher was a very occasional visitor to the pond last summer, they are firmly in residence now and spend their time going back and forth between two particular trees. A kingfisher sits very still on a overhanging branch, spies a fish in the water, and makes a sudden drop dive, spearing the animal and returning to the branch to eat it. They make a loud, rattling call, but only when they fly, and their beak size is enormous compared to their tiny bodies. This particular Kingfisher appears to be “tenderizing” his fish by whacking it on the branch before swallowing. Halcyon Home-Ec?

The series of photos from last nights dam visit are some of the most “beaver expressive” ever. Enjoy!

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In the beginning…

heidi08 Beavers, pictures, Uncategorized May 30, 2008

Long before I first saw the beavers, I heard stories about them from people who claimed to see them about from time to time. One woman told me there were three beavers, two adults and a kit, and it was her persuasion that sent me back morning after morning. She insisted that the dam had originally been closer to the Marina st. bridge, and had been removed by city workers during construction of the county building. At the farmer’s market the other day I met a gentleman who said he had taken photos of them from his kayak in June of 2006. I begged him to find the photo and send it our way, and wanted to share it with you. The remarkable thing is that it is obvious this is the mother beaver because its such a fortunate shot of her tail. Check out how svelte she was back then: a few willow trees ago. Robert Rust is the photographer and our new grandfather of beaver sightings. He says he has video of three as well. Enjoy.

Photo By: Robert Rust, June 2006

Taking Care of Beavers

heidi08 Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers, pictures July 9, 2008

Last night’s beaver viewing was a very confirming sight of mama beaver coming out of the lodge, over the dam, under the bridge, and up on the bank. We knew it was mom because we saw the chip in her tail and guessed she was heading for her latest fix of fennel. When she returned from her foray in the grasses she was carry a long stalk of fennel AND some choice willow leaves. This she brought with singular focus under the bridge, over the dam and back into the lodge.

Looks like Mama beaver is taking care of her needs and coaxing the mystery kits to try a little solid food. It was pretty convincing proof that our beavers have even more reasons to be celebrating Mother’s Day tomorrow. If you and mom head out to the Farmer’s Market Sunday stop by and say “hi”. Meanwhile, check out the family album photographer Cheryl Reynolds is working on…

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Pickles & Ice cream? Mama Beaver Craves Fennel…

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational, Friends of Martinez Beavers, pictures, Video April 13, 2008

Several of us watched the show today of mom eating stalks of green leafy fennel under the footbridge. She’s still enormously pregnant and we must be days away from the blessed event. It turns out trappers sometimes use anise in beaver lures, so I guess that makes sense in terms of pregnant beaver cravings. Check out her fragrant concentration in the fennel video. I’m including today the letter to the city sent by resident Jean O’Neil, avid beaver supporter.

I’ve been a Martinez resident for 33 years. I raised my two children in this wonderful town. The beavers are absolutely the neatest thing that has happened in Martinez since I’ve lived here. It’s so much fun showing them to out of town friends, my visiting daughters, nieces from Portland and their 4 young children. It’s always an event. To take them away and destroy the beavers way of life here and all the enjoyment received from the beavers to the people of Martinez would be a cruel and sad thing to do. I’m very much against any action taken to remove them. And it would be an unfortunate statement about our city and a blight on our history.

Thanks Jean, for your concern and perspective! And here’s hoping Mama enjoys a good days sleep. If you need a little reading before bedtime, you might recognize this familiar story.

Beavers change things: it’s what they do. Part I

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, pictures, Why We Care April 13, 2008

As I stood at the dam this morning, watching junior working on some finishing touches, I thought about the idea of beavers being a “keystone species”. This is an ecological term coined in the 60’s which means basically that certain animals create a broad impact on the habitat where they live and that the ecosystem wouldn’t be the same without them. A more detailed description of this concept is in the report under the environmental section and it’s a good idea for all beaver advocates to be familiar with. Obviously the dam increases rich sediment which increases insects, which increases fish, which increases the things that eat fish (birds, mammals, turtles and so on).

Remarkably, an opinion was added to the conclusion of this section that while other beavers may well be considered a “keystone species” there is no evidence to suggest that these beavers are having an impact on Alhambra Creek.

(Other than the photos and the movies and the daily witnesses, you mean?)

Obviously we’ve seen the beavers change Alhambra Creek, and the media section of this website will help document those changes. Still the idea has gotten me thinking about some other ways beavers have changed Martinez; the community, the politics, the visibility. Beavers change things. It’s what they do. I myself had never written a newspaper article or made a video before the beavers came. I had barely ever attended a city council meeting or spoken to a stranger on the street. I had never had a documentary filmed in my living room or started a non-profit. More importantly, I had never realized how many people around me cared about the very same things I cared about.

How did beavers change you? I know some have told me they hadn’t spoken up at a meeting, or actively campaigned before. Some have said they hadn’t really noticed the creek or followed the wildlife on their way to work. Others started reading the Gazette or talking to their neighbors, and some just changed their dinner plans to visit Bertola’s in the evening. If you have some thoughts you want to share, send them to mtzbeavers@gmail.com. I’d like to follow with up with a tapestry post of how these beavers have impacted our lives.

My reflective morning visit to the dam ended with a chat with the now famous beaver-rescuer “K” while we watched Dad pull mud from the bottom and reinforce the downstream side of the dam. After he left for work I heard a whisper to “come look” from an unknown gentleman who had spotted this great display near the secondary dam. A cyclist paused to see what I was photographing, and commented that he had never seen such a clear view of these (or any) beavers.

I thought about how seeing beavers in our creek had changed my morning, and those three watcher’s morning, and wondered how many similar changes were waiting to be learned about.

Heidi P. Perryman, Ph.D.