pictures – Page 9 – Worth A Dam

Work, work, work!

heidi08 pictures, Recent Sightings February 23, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Cheryl caught dad in the act yesterday, working hard to bring this tree to the secondary dam. Daylight wasn’t kind to her, but Mr. Beaver was and let her see how hard it really is to get a 90 pound sapling over a twiggy muddy dam.Three other beavers were in attendance, but not much help. Ahh look at that nose. Even though our yearlings are adult sized, they don’t have noses like that! Very broad and unmistakeable. Nice to see the fam in full display.

Interestingly, this trunk was part of a fork of a tree with the woodduck box in it. Jon sand painted it to protect the ducks from having their home toppled by a toothy bandit, and stopped at exactly the point where this was chewed, which does seem to prove that sand painting works, although one could observe that it wasn’t painted quite high enough!

I would write more, about the diligence of beaver ethics, and how it could benefit our lives, but I am very jealous of Cheryl’s amazing good luck and just have to go see for myself! Come along, why don’t you?

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

Robert Frost: The Pasture

Update: Mom seen this morning, doing what she does best. Also a yearling in the most languid of poses. Mom’s eye condition looks no worse, but is sadly no better. I’m just thankful that she is keeping a lazy schedule because there was a massive dog fight in the water at 6:45 and I was nervous she would show up in the middle. Two large hound dogs showed up from no where, biting and snarling at each other in the water right at the tunnel to the damlet by the Marina Vista bridge. An unlucky raccoon was forced to swim much farther than he might have wanted to make a getaway. I made as many scary noises as possible to get the dogs to clear out, one was hurt in the fray and wouldn’t leave until the victor vacated the area. Jon will repair the fence today and see if we can keep further canine intruders at bay.

Anyway mom was completely unperturbed, and the beavers had a calm and easy morning, which was nice to see.

Bird Visitors

heidi08 New Species, pictures February 16, 2010

Two double-crested cormorants met up for a rendevous at the Marina Vista Bridge yesterday morning. We had never seen more than one at a time, and wondered if they might be a breeding pair. The one in the front has a speckled chest and is an immature, (but maybe not that immature…) Cormorants are very social birds, and nest in colonies. The unpaired males attract a female by showing her all the cool stuff he found for a nest, although the lucky woman gets to do most of the building. Their nests are scrubby and uninviting to us, and they are known for using seaweed, netting, pebbles and even the skeletons of dead birds. Any place to call home, I guess.

The young are famous for hanging out together in the colony in losely formed groups called “creches”. (No word on whether they also tag buildings…) Our own Cheryl Reynolds says that these little charmers are some of the least loved birds in a rehab center, because they have sharp vicious beaks and no qualms about using them. She also says that they can be platform nesters, like atop power poles. I can’t imagine where these two might call home if they decided to set up camp. It will be fun to watch though.

No sign of the otter yesterday, and Lory saw him Sunday going around the dam rather than through the pipe. I’m wondering just how much fish he’s eaten and if maybe he doesn’t fit through that little pipe as well anymore!

Martinez SOS

heidi08 City Reports, New Species, pictures February 15, 2010

Let’s talk about Martinez. There has been a flurry of recent rule-breaking development in our downtown plan and design. The most recent is the proposal to put 42 units near shell avenue, even though the Mayor admits the road can’t take half that. Beaver friend Phil Ciaramitero is looking for support in helping impacted neighbors oppose this plan. He writes:

Dear Friends & Citizens of Martinez,

It is of grave & vital importance that we all attend next Wednesday’s (Feb. 17th at 5:30pm) joint session of the council & planning commission. Focus will be on the proposed Cascara Canyon project at the foot of Shell Avenue hill.

Do you remember what happened when the pro-beaver people came en masse? The beavers are still here. This Cascara Canyon project and the direction the council is taking needs to be curbed. Your attendance, if anything, will insure our faithful watchdogs that secure neighborhoods are important to us. We must have an impressive show of strength, if for anything – that we’re not going to go down without a fight. We live & work here and volunteer our time to make Martinez better. Their leadership has not really done a whole lot to enliven this city, nor taken any measures to step away from the polarization they’ve created and continue to perpetuate upon this community.

Please spread the word. We’re not keeping any secrets here. Tell everyone you know.

Phillip Ciaramitaro
925-917-0441

A detailed is response and press release is available here. Any city that changes it’s zoning to make room for favors needs to at least think about what it means to the neighborhoods it alters. This was voted down by the planning commission who knew it was a bad idea. The city council wanted it anyway. Shouldn’t you go to the meeting and inquire how exactly this will help your city?

Day 1: Bird Rescue Overflow…

heidi08 New Species, pictures October 25, 2009

IBRRC brought back 100 birds last night, only 3 died in transport. Now they’re down to the grueling (and pecky!) work of washing and hydrating each one. Latest Update Here. Cheryl was there to help and took this picture. And guess who else was there? Penny and John Weigand who did the Comeback Kids book on the Martinez Beavers. They are doing a similar book on IBRRC, and just happened to be visiting that day. What a lucky coincidence for them! And for all those birds who got rescued and will be given free health care.

Speaking of which, have you seen this? It is a remarkable example of the kind of politics I aspire to, charming, courageous, sneaky and impossible to ignore

Rumbles

heidi08 pictures September 12, 2009

Did you hear the rumbles last night? We were up at four to stumble onto the porch and watch the lightening show. There were forkless sheets, noiseless ruptures, and then a single horizontal bolt over the hills where the osprey sleeps. For a while there were silent explosions of light, and we thought about being on a planet with no atmosphere so that there could be no thunder. Later it got more noisy, so you could count the distance between the lightening and thunder and know that it was getting closer. This morning the dragon is still growling in his sleep and the weather has changed from dry to damp.

In the sierras where we camp there is a particular mountain that makes thunder. I can’t describe it any other way. In the morning there is a clear cloudless sky, reflected in a brilliant jewel lake, and by 12:30 high fluffy clouds form in the east, and by 1:30 it has started to storm. Lightening crashes into the line of already battered trees, and if we are hiking we hightail it back down the mountain. Usually a brief, fierce shaking storm that marches from east to west and then is completely finished, with a clean fresh smell and a sudden explosion of bird song. The evening is crystal clear until tomorrow. When the mountain makes thunder again.

I have always liked thunder storms although here in California we are lightening-deprived. I never knew how deprived until I visited my Florida friend and saw what REAL lightening looks like: long clean forks that come from every part of the sky and explode onto the horizon burning an afterimage on your retinae. I could have sat and watched that new and improved lightening forever, but Florida people have more reason to be frightened by it than we do and I was always ushered inside when the bolts got closer. Once I was lucky enough to sit on a screened porch in San Marcos Island and see a fork of lighting that was thicker than a telephone pole. I would have stayed with wide Disney eyes until my hair went from curly to crispy but I was anxiously tugged back inside.

I couldn’t say what beavers think about thunder, if they notice it at all. With all our trains and trucks and traffic noises I can’t imagine thunder sounds very different to them, and I doubt they look for the forks. It’s one of the things I like best about them actually; their cheerful ability to go about their business regardless of what life throws at them. We should all be so lucky.