AND THE AWARD FOR MOST MYSTERIOUS BEAVER GOES TO…

heidi08 pictures May 7, 2020

All right, how about a beaver mystery this morning? It’s sunny outside and the tomatoes are all planted, so this is a great time to ponder this photo by Roland Dumas of Napa. What do you think about this mysterious spot on the beavers back?

I’ve asked around and gotten a range of answers. Cheryl doesn’t think it looks like an injury and Neither Mike Callahan or his trapper wife have ever seen anything like it. Alexa Whipple asked all the Methow folk (who have seen and caught a lot of beavers) about it and they had lots of theories but no solid guesses.

Our crew checked out your photos and we each came up with the same potential explanations that I’m sure you already have…Tumor?, Cyst?, Birthmark? Cowlick? It seems too isolated in one spot for oil spill but perhaps if he/she rubbed on someone’s vehicle oil pan in a residential area, maybe motor oil… Without intervention, it may remain a mystery.

Hmm since this is Napa I could theoretically see a beaver rubbing in a motor oil spot though probably not on his back Roland sent some more images.

Derek Gow of Scotland wonders if it might just not be a coloring trait, like that wildly unusual Pied beaver seen in Winters. That seems possible. What do you think?

Beavers. They keep you guessing! What are your ideas about this big black spot? I sure would love to know what explains it. Happy pondering.

“THE KEYSTONE THAT WAS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CORNER STONE”

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, pictures April 20, 2020

Well, you know the old story. Famous nature group wants to do a piece on beavers and talk to our ‘biologist’ but settles for me, and then this famous nature group scurries off to talk to the real players and then crawls back and asks for some photos. Because they come to the stunning conclusion that ours are better than anyone else’s and document the dramatic changes the beavers make!

Ya ya ya, of course they do. Because in our non-biologist ways we actually watched things and observed the changes. Because scientists are more focused on data and we were more focused on SEEING. Surprised?

Anyway, it looks like we can expect a fun beaver article from the big wigs soon, so I’m happy. Until then we can make do with this nice report from the New York Adirondack.

Beavers: Nature’s Architects and Engineers

Beavers are the great architects of American ponds and streams. The North American beaver competes with the Eurasian beaver to be the 2nd largest rodent in the world, after another semi-aquatic mammal, the South American Capybara.

More than any other mammal, the industrious and hard working beavers have the greatest impact on water bodies, with their tree harvesting, manipulation and dam building. The purpose of dam building is to create lakes or ponds of sufficient depth to allow beavers underwater access to their lodges if and when the water surface freezes in winter, as well as to keep predators like wolves, coyotes, cougars or bears from approaching or breaking into the lodge for access to the beavers.

Beaver ponds naturally produce a huge and beneficial support habitat for everything from invertebrates, fish, crayfish, frogs, newts, snakes and turtles to predators like otters, minks, weasels and bears, as well as osprey, eagles, ducks, geese, etc. so the same factors which seem to make beavers a headache for farmers and land owners, provide a rich biodiversity for the flourishing of a wide range of plants, crustaceans and animals. Beaver ponds act as one of nature’s best filters, removing sediments and pollutants from water, including total suspended solids, total nitrogen, phosphates, carbon and silicates.

Why yes they do! Nice of you to notice. Someday this message will catch on I keep thinking.

They also provide game for hunters and fishermen, and a place to drink for deer and other mammals like moose, who browse the sodium rich water plants, often diving beneath the water surface to access the plants. Car accidents with moose are usually caused by moose coming up onto the road to lick the salt we spray around to melt the ice.

If the aim of trapping beavers is to eliminate them, trapping backfires because the same habitat which attracted the beavers in the first place, will attract other beavers, who will rebuild the dams and infrastructure. This is why beaver deceivers are such a useful invention, as they preserve the beaver’s habitat, and all of its benefits, while preventing too many acres from being absorbed into the beaver’s habitat. Working with the beavers is generally a win-win for all parties.

Yup! And this is the way I wish all beaver stories would end!

READY FOR MY CLOSE UP, MR. BEAVER

heidi08 pictures February 19, 2020

You know and I know that beaver dams are good for lots of things. Fires and floods and drought and salmon and nitrogen. But at its most basic level beaver dams are also passage ways for a myriad of creatures that otherwise would be unwilling to cross the water. We’ve seen house cats and opossums pick their way across in Martinez. And many a photographer has benefited from this wildlife highway. Some with more skill than others.

Camera trap photographer captures stunning wildlife images

TETTEGOUCHE STATE PARK — Ryan Pennesi has a favorite spot in this North Shore park where he hit the jackpot with wildlife sightings. Well, not sightings so much as trappings. And not trapping like grab the animal by the leg but camera traps, a fancy name for a fancier version of the ever-popular trail camera.

In that one spot Pennesi’s camera captured deer, wolves, coyotes, red fox, gray fox, snowshoe hare, ruffed grouse, squirrels and a badger.

Remote cameras are getting very popular, and more and more complex. Check out the pine marten. We almost never get to see them anymore.

In 2013 and 2014, when he worked at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center near Finland, Pennesi would ask the students to form a hypothesis about what animal lived in a certain burrow in the ground, or what animal was visiting a specific tree or leaving a track. Then they would put up a trail camera and wait for the visual confirmation.

“They make a really good teaching tool,’’ Pennesi said of trail cameras. “The students like the technology and the photos pull them into the natural world, to wildlife.”

Seeing the students’ reaction inspired Pennesi to experiment with trail cameras. He’s also worked to improve his traditional (hand-held, in-person) photography skills with help from renowned Twin Cities-based nature photographer Benjamin Olson.

About five years ago Pennesi began to dabble in homemade camera traps using high-end digital cameras, remote flashes, a passive infrared motion/heat sensor hardwired to the camera’s shutter and a hard, waterproof camera case. He uses wide-angle lenses — between 10 to 35 mm — that can take in a wider field of view, a little more forgiving when you don’t know exactly where your subject is going to show up.

Ryan has some excellent advise for trackers-turned-wildlife photographers.

Water is often a magnet for wildlife. Logs laying across streams (in open water season) are remarkably well used. Beaver dams are like freeways for critters looking to cross ponds and streams.

Well actually, Ryan, beaver dams are are than freeways. They’re more like the office and housing complex around freeways too, and the reason wildlife is crossing in the first place. If it weren’t for that ‘freeway’ lots of the wildlife wouldn’t be there at all.

Beavers look forward to your thank you note, Ryan.

CHECKING IN ON ALL OUR BEAVER FRIENDS

heidi08 Beavers and Ranchers, Beavers and trout, Friends of Martinez Beavers, pictures January 17, 2020

Lots of beaver news today. Lets focus on or friends, first! Mike Settell in Pocatello Idaho is doing another beaver count! How can it be that his volunteers look frozen but he looks young and cheerful after all these years!

Watershed Guardians to hold their 9th annual BeaverCount

On Feb. 1 and Feb. 8 Watershed Guardians will hold its 9th annual BeaverCount, a free snowshoe event to raise awareness of the important role beaver play keeping the Portneuf River watershed healthy.

On Feb. 1, volunteers will meet at the Mink Creek Nordic Center at 10 a.m. where a training will be held for anyone interested in counting beaver activity. The training will include winter outdoor preparedness and censusing techniques for beaver. Participants will also learn about their watershed. This training is for newcomers and BeaverCount veterans, known as “Flattailers.” Flattailers are encouraged to attend the training to update their skills.

Man that’s smart! I wanna be a flat-tailer! Don’t you?

Snowshoes and food will be provided by Watershed Guardians for both weekends. Participants must pre-register, which they can do on the Watershed Guardians Facebook page or at the website, www.watershedguardians.org. Should conditions warrant on Feb. 7, the count will be rescheduled for Feb. 15. Please check Facebook and/or the website for updates on weather conditions during the week prior to Feb. 8.

Watershed Guardians is a 501c (3) non-profit whose mission is to, ” Protect, maintain and restore the Portneuf River Watershed, one beaver at a time.” Data collected from BeaverCount is used to influence management decisions with regard to trapping regulations.

Brave beaver-loving Mike has been at this work nearly as long as us. On a tougher landscape where fur-trapping abounds. Thank goodness he’s willing to snowshoe every year and share what he knows!

Let’s stop by our local Sonoma beavers next and see what they’re up to, shall we?

Bill Lynch: Frankly, my beaver, we don’t give a dam

The Sonoma Index-Tribune recently published a couple of articles about beavers and otters in Sonoma Creek (“Otters Join Beavers in Sonoma Creek,” Dec. 27).

It’s a good sign, not just because it’s nice to know that Sonoma Valley’s main waterway is actually clean enough to support wildlife, but also because beavers can actually improve life for other critters, including my favorite, rainbow trout.

Our Sonoma Valley creeks used to be home to a healthy population of steelhead/rainbow trout and spawning areas for king and Coho salmon. In my boyhood here we could fish for trout in most of our streams through the spring and early summer.

Since those days, our creeks have lost more than half of their water and many completely dry up by June and stay that way until the fall rains return.

This kills any chance for salmon fry and steelhead trout fry to survive.

I don’t understand the headline. Shouldn’t it be “We should all give a dam?” But the column is excellent! That’s what we need. A few more beaver friends argue that saving salmon and trout depends on them. Thanks Bill! Have we met?

About a year and a half ago, I visited the Scott River valley were local residents formed the Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) and are working with Dr. Michael Pollock, eco-system analyst for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this little community people are doing something about bringing back their creeks.

The river, no bigger than our own Sonoma Creek, was once a prolific salmon and steelhead spawning resource, before it was ruined by past gold mining. Then climate change and other factors caused it and its tributaries to dry up during most summers.

But in 2014 SRWC began constructing “beaver dam analogues,” which are human made structures that mimic natural beaver dams, store water and create habitat for all kinds of local species, including steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Over time, these naturally appearing dams create pools where fish can survive.

Dottie and I met with Betsy Stapleton, chairman of the SRWC, who showed us some of the work her group has done on the creek. The results are impressive. They were able to preserve large areas of fresh, clean water in which Coho and trout fry are surviving. Every season, the fish count goes up.

Real beavers are helpful, but when there are not enough of them, small grassroots projects like those in the Scott River Valley can really help. Perhaps something like that would work here.

Oh yeah. Now that’s what I like to see. A beaver friend we don’t know yet talking about a beaver friend we already know! The stage is filling up. Soon you won’t be able to swing a dead salmon without hitting someone who knows why beavers matter!

Even in Silicon Valley there are friends looking out for beavers. Take this excellent photo taken by Erica Fleniken of the Southbay Creeks Coalition yesterday morning on the Guadelupe. She says she was watching two beavers swim and snapped this beautiful photo.

Two beavers in January mean kits in June. Big smile.