pictures – Page 7 – Worth A Dam

SWP equality campaign

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, kits, pictures, Recent Sightings September 24, 2012

Beaver Tales is not a funny story

If the saga of the Beavers of Stanton Drain and their forest friends wasn’t so sadly real it would be worthy of a Monty Python skit.

On the one hand you have a pair of beavers that love to build dams. They’ve chosen Stanton Drain, which runs through a natural heritage wetland in Hyde Park, as home.

While it can’t be argued the damming beavers are exclusively responsible for the menagerie of frogs, salamanders, other reptiles and mammals, and 37 bird species that also shares this little spot, they’ve certainly contributed in large measure.

It can’t even be argued the beavers are the central story. Their part may be symbolic more than anything – but lordy as symbols go they’ve got it huge.

Snappy intro to the McLeod report, a fairly formal commentary blog from Philip McLeod the journalist in London Ontario. I love the way he describes the beaver pond as essential to countless species of wildlife, and then goes step by step outlining the pickle the city has gotten itself into. Call me crazy but I think that if Storm Water Ponds (SWPs) are going to be linked using an existing creek as a flood channel then the SWP become part of the creek, not the other way round. (Key word POND) Anyway, every creek is technically a SWP. That’s what creeks do. Hold and direct water during storms. Didn’t you know?

I suppose you will argue that SWPs are manmade and concrete, to which I would say most creeks have WAY more manmade concrete (or sheetpile) in them than they should so that really doesn’t delineate the two. Also since whatever name you call it, a beaver or otter or steelhead might move into it, you had better bite the bullet and learn how to control beavers humanely and install a culvert fence or flow device if you need one.

Even if you successfully get rid of these more will be back and we’ll be having this conversation next year or the year after that. Do it right, help wildlife, soothe the protesters and the property owners and save yourself from next year’s headache.

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Three beavers last night again braving a super high tide. Junior from over the primary dam, mom (?) from up there as well afterward, and Dad’s big form seen emerging for the second time from the bank hole downstream by the third dam they’ve been working on. Here’s a glimpse of the happy family:

The Beautiful Carnivores

heidi08 New Species, pictures February 25, 2012

Recently Updated30 — Hooded Mergansers at beaver dam 02-25-12 Photo J.Ridler

There’s No Great Loss…

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, pictures, Recent Sightings January 24, 2012

Without some small gain…

greenie eating fish — Green Heron at Third Dam: Cheryl Reynolds

Thanks for sharing the great photo! Both Bruce Herbold and I tentatively think that the fish may be a Sacramento splittail, a native minnow that occurs in north bay brackish marshes. We are not entirely certain because the photo angle/fish is a bit tilted which makes it difficult to clearly see the back and head of the fish. Hope this is helps and keep the photos coming!

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Robert A. Leidy, Ph.D.

Wetlands Regulatory Office (WTR-8)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

75 Hawthorne Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

And if all that tasty fish-eating made you hungry, here’s some food for thought!

Milwaukee Brewers closer John Axford, has burst on the scene as one of the most dominant closers in all of baseball. What is the secret to his success? Perhaps this, is the answer…Thanks to John’s diligence and love for Twitter, we may have stumbled on to something more amazing than we could have imagined. Below you will find a picture of Mr. Axford enjoying, what appears to be, a beavers tail. In fact, John admits it in the Tweet. Could beaver not only be his secret weapon, but the secret weapon of an entire country? What if all Canadians harness their power from the dam building rodents flat tail? Is this a national conspiracy?

BeaverTails is a company out of Ottawa, Canada. They specialize in BeaverTails. Basically, a BT is a flat donut full of butter and any other type of topping your heart can desire. I would imagine chocolate, caramel, nuts, maybe some fruit. Here’s the thing though, all I can do is speculate. Sadly, I am not Canadian and have only been to Vancouver…which seems an awful lot like Seattle. Therefore, I do not think it counts.porty bit of pastry this morning with your coffee, you might enjoy this column on Beavertail.

Go here for the rest of the article, and here to see if they want to sell at the Beaver Festival!

Where’s that Monkey again?

heidi08 Beavers, City Reports, Environmental, New Species, pictures January 3, 2012

Moses Otter — Young Otter Grooming: Photo - Moses Silva

When Jon trotted down with the dog on New Years’ eve around 4:30 there was a crowd gathered around at the Escobar bridge watching this little fellow meticulously grooming his fur without any awareness of his audience. Moses Silva was there filming of course, and very kindly gave me some photos afterwards. What a fantastic way to draw attention to Mom’s memorial! Thanks Otter! The mayor walked by on his way to the creek monkey, but if he had any impulse to look at what his constituents were watching, he gamely resisted it.

As you can see, the dedicated grooming paid off, and The nibbler eventually fluffed himself into a very warm and furry young otter. Otters are born blind and helpless but are in the water by two months. They stay with the mother for most of a year, then straggle of on their own to make their way before the new pups are born in spring. Obviously this young one was introduced to Alhambra Creek as a prime fishing spot, and came back because it was easy and familiar.

Great egret gift — Great Egret: Photo - Moses Silva

This great Egret was jealous of the spot and came to check it out for himself when the otter retired. Wow, what a creek!

Speaking of memorials, did you spot the End of the Year Highlights in the Gazette? Along with a mention of August Events that gave the beaver festival top billing over the Peddler’s Faire there was this bit of reflection.

September ended on an ignominious note for City staff after a downtown, creek-side property owner complained about the inclusion of a beaver in a new mural being painted in Main Street Plaza. When staff directed the artist to remove the beaver illustration at the behest of the property owner, word got out and area media, including the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about the latest chapter of the “city’s conflicted relationship with its resident beaver family,” as Chronicle reporter Carolyn Jones wrote.

Did you catch that? A creek side complaint! That didn’t make the earlier reports and I suppose the rumor eventually percolated to the surface. Good Ol’ Dave Scola, taking the heat for a powerful landowner’s petulant decision AGAIN. Well, we always knew how it happened. But it’s nice to see it in print. Thanks Greta.

And our Georgia friend wrote me that Sherri’s interview plays annoyingly with every page load if you are using Chrome, and doesn’t play at all if he’s using another browser. I tried several and realized he was right. I apologize for that and will work on the fix. Sometimes I forget to check how the website is working with other browsers. We’ll get the hang of this eventually! We’re on iTunes now, so GO SUBSCRIBE, avoid the hassel and never miss an episode! And while you’re there maybe you could rate beavers kindly?

You think you’re cold?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, pictures December 6, 2011

Look at his whiskers! That beaver is cold and has been cold for a long long time! I found this by accident over the weekend and have been marveling at it ever sense. His warm breath must have been adding to that snow-sker for hours.

The first winter I spent with Jon was in Germany and supposedly the coldest weather they had seen since the war. The temperature dropped to 25 below (celsius). It was so cold that you could spit in your hand and make an icecube (if you were so inclined). We went strolling through the snow and laughed when his mustache froze.

But it didn’t freeze as much as that.

If you need something else even more fascinating and cold, check out this amazing tale of the ‘brin-icle’ from the new documentary Frozen Earth.I love the time lapse photography at the end with the star fish and sea urchins scurrying into the ice. I couldn’t understand at first why they all seem eager to die, but have decided there must be an easy stream of sluggish plankton to feed on at first. Must be your best meal ever before it’s your last.