Category: kits

Stay up late…

heidi08 Beavers, kits July 4, 2012

New Parents? Photo by Cheryl Reynolds

Beaver baby updates this morning from Lory and Jean our reporters in the field. My nose as it happens was busy holding itself to the grindstone, but I’ll be there to keep an eye tonight.

Well, it was a very busy beaver night. When I got down to the primary dam, Moses was there and said the baby beaver had gone over the primary dam and was near by the bank. He had some film of the little one out with a bigger beaver. (He also said that last night the baby came out around 9:30.) It did come out and went back over the primary dam towards the secondary. That’s when I saw it and it swam towards the bank lodge and that’s the last time I saw it I think. There was so much beaver activity from several beavers going back and forth between the dams.. Dad also came across the primary dam.

Karen and Glen were there. Haven’t seen them in over a year. When I was coming up from the primary dam, a lady drove up and wanted to know if I was Heidi. She was the lady that first e-mailed you about the baby beaver in June. She was hoping to see you. She will be down at Armando’s tomorrow night so maybe she will drop by the bridge. Jean also showed up with fennel and apples. She was going to e-mail you so let me know if she doesn’t so I can tell you about her throwing the fennel on the primary dam. I left at 9 and there was still beaver activity going on. Reed did some work on the secondary dam.

Lory

Heidi…fun at the dams tonight. When I tossed fennel onto the primary dam, a big burly male voice yelled from the patio at the Creek Monkey bar, “Don’t throw grass on there! Go pick it up!!” I yelled back that it was fennel and the beavers like it. He said, “oh, ok.” And then a huge beaver came down, climbed full body out of the water and onto the dam and fetched a fennel bulb, and swam upstream. The people at the bar saw the whole thing, were muttering about it, and the man yelled, “thank you”. Lory and I agreed that it is wonderful knowing the people at the bar are keeping watch. The teacher who first saw the kit was there tonight anxious to meet you, Heidi. Instead she, three other visitors, Lory, Moses and myself saw at least 3 beavers, not including the baby. The kit made a brief appearance. Lory and Moses saw it. The teacher was so excited telling everyone her story of the baby sighting. It was very fun. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow night. Full moon. The maniacs will be howling.

Jean

Happy Independence day celebrating the ‘colonies’ everywhere! And best wishes from quite possibly the most watched beaver kit on the entire planet.

The Man of the Hour

heidi08 kits July 3, 2012

With the arrival of the new kit we are getting a the usually flurry of attention. There were articles yesterday in Patch and Gary Bogue, and today in the Gazette. (Although I’m certain I said footbridge not Escobar bridge, but I’m sure the beavers won’t mind!) And I also heard from beaver friend Mayor of Claycord (who also does the East Bay SFGate blog) and he sent his enthusiastic congratulations and said he will run the story today. It isn’t traffic stopping news, I know. But I think the fact that Dad beaver found a new mate and is starting a new family which is being lovingly adopted by the OLD family is a big deal! At the very least, it means that we could continue to have beavers until 2014. Or longer.

Last night Worth A Dam was waiting with lenses in hand, but there was a noisy family with children hopping about and after the usual ‘beaver caution float’ there was a resounding tail slap and no kit appeared. Sigh. Tomorrow maybe? We did see lots of adult beavers, two touching noses which made everyone ‘awww’, and had a great look at Dad who (instead of taking a single willow branch in from our offerings on the bank like the other beavers nipped the ENTIRE bunch at once.) Here’s footage of Dad near the secondary dam. See how his face is paler and bumpier and he seems to have a punk hairdo? We used to be able to ID dad by size alone, but now we have so many adult beavers now it’s better to rely on other clues.

Honestly, we’re a little worried about the 4th of July with all those folks crossing the footbridge just as Jr is waking up. We’ll be there to keep an eye, but hopefully they will have read the Gazette article and will all be standing at the Escobar bridge looking upstream for the new lodge!

Oh and if you feel you can’t live without a festival mug, a key chain or throw pillow, you might appreciate this:

New Kit in Town!!!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 2, 2012

Almost 1 month ago I received an email from a 3rd grade teacher from Pleasant Hill that had been walking home in the evening from Armando’s on the Marina Vista Bridge and saw a big beaver carrying a little beaver in its mouth. She swore that she clearly saw the tail of each, and that they went downstream and into the bank on the west side above the footbridge. She wasn’t someone I had corresponded with before, and I couldn’t know how much stock to put in the story. I thanked her very much for letting me know, and asked every question I could think of. I didn’t want to write about it in case it wasn’t true, but I was hopeful.

Before that we had seen the area directly near the footbridge where ‘Reed’ lives, but nothing farther up. When we started watching for the mysterious new rumor we noticed that there definitely was a new apartment, under the cottonwood, to the right of the bank if you’re standing on the footbridge looking upstream. In fact it seemed to be kind of a ‘hub’, with the beaver coming from above the primary to check in, Dad beaver swimming in, and ‘Reed’ swimming in!

Whoever swam into the new digs, they seemed to bring something – a branch of willow, a long tule, a bunch of grasses. But we had waited nearly a month and had seen no kit. The morning we saw Dad swim in with a huge stalk of fragrant fennel our hopes were renewed. Fennel stimulates lactation. Mom always ate fennel when she was breastfeeding. Mom died two years ago now. Could there be a new mom?

We waited and waited and waited. Weeks had passed since we received the rumor. Despite the fennel, we had nearly given up hope, or thought if there had been a kit it hadn’t survived. Since we heard the story on June 4th I promised myself we wouldn’t give up hope until July 4th. Two days left. Last night Jon, myself and Moses were watching beavers on the footbridge. We saw what appeared to be Reed slipping into the water and cruising the secondary. He was so still in the water, alert and watchful it honestly seemed like he was making a decision.

Promise me that if you ever see this behavior, you’ll know somethings up. We used to see it from GQ when he was watching out for the kits. But we never had so many new parents in such a small place before. Suddenly all those tail slaps were starting to make sense. When we turned to look upstream, Jon said offhandedly ‘Oh there’s a little beaver’ and then it whined and then we knew it was a LITTLE BEAVER and then it was gone.

We argued, checked footage, and tried to verify nose size by comparing it to the leaves. It couldn’t be. Could it? Jon went to check upstream and I took a picture of Moses footage just in case we never saw it again.

Then a little peanut-shaped beaver came sauntering down stream. I was so excited I could barely click the camera in time to catch him slipping away. Looking at this footage I’d say he’s diving better than our last kits, he might be around 6 weeks old.

A new beaver kit! A healthy beaver kit! A new generation in the family! As we hooted and congratulated each other, the upstream beaver came down and popped in to the new apartment to check how things were going. Jon came back and was very angry he had missed it. Another man joined us on the bridge and spoke wistfully wishing the colony was sustainable. Wary Reed made another appearance, and this time we knew what it meant. He was followed by a floating peanut, that drifted right below us making sure everyone got a good look, and then gave a VERY impressive tail slap and dove away.

(Actually it was so energetic it was more like an ‘everything’ slap). There could be NO mistake. Our beavers are a family again. You can bet we will be there again tonight. And in the meantime enjoy this delightful report about our friend Peter Smith at Wildtrust in Kent. Doesn’t he do an amazing job? Beaver festival Kent?

Halcyon Rescue

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, In the News, kits, New Species, Recent Sightings June 24, 2012

So the tap on my door yesterday turned out to be Moses with his camera bag, only instead of toting around the usual video camera that has practically become a regular Martinez landmark, the bag held an injured belted kingfisher. He had found it flapping around the primary dam and it couldn’t fly for more than a few feet. He had eventually managed to catch it with the help of the beaver-attentive homeless man Robert. Could I arrange to bring it to the Lindsay Museum for rehab?

So we transferred the very large bird with an impossibly long bill to a paper bag for safe keeping, and gave Moses back his camera case. Then I called Cheryl Reynolds to check in just to make sure what to do next. She said that rehab of Kingfishers was VERY tricky and that Lindsay would almost certainly bring the bird to International Bird Rescue where she works. She mulled whether it was better for the bird to go straight to Fairfield, but ultimately decided it would be best for a vet to see him right away and get her stabilized.

halcyon — Kingfisher with supper - Cheryl Reynolds

Jon was at work and Lory was out of town so I I drove alone in the Subaru, (where mom beaver had once had ridden ironically nearly two years ago to the day), with the bird fluttering inside her bag on the front seat. I say ‘her’ because she seemed to have an observable red chest band. As I drove, I thought of my personal history of bringing animals to Lindsay over the course of my life. A seagull. A thrush. A goldfinch. A pond turtle. And a tiny field mouse, which they did not take. At their advice we fed the baby fieldmouse puppy milk out of an eye dropper ourselves and he grew up from a ‘teaspoon’ to a ‘tablespoon’ in a short week. It was a strange lesson in animal husbandry, but perhaps paved the way for advanced rodent guardianship later on. After the week we put him back at Briones where we found him.

I delivered the bird to the healers at Lindsay. The receiving woman took down his information politely, “you say he’s from the Martinez Beaver dam? You mean the famous one?”. Yes, indeed. Good luck, Mr. Kingfisher. Your bright colors and swooping dives make for beautiful watching at the dams! Get well fast!

A couple more odds and ends to brighten your Sunday. Last night the father beaver movie topped 60,000! And as I was surfing about I found this article and thought, wait a minute, who’s calling themselves an accidental beaver advocate? That’s MY line! Someone’s stealing my material!

I became an accidental beaver advocate when some moved into our local stream and the city wanted to kill them. I started a group called ‘Worth A Dam’ to teach others about their value and how to solve problems. I organize a yearly beaver festival and am working with a group in California to reeducate our state about beaver value and historic prevalence.

Oh wait, that IS me. Just not my name. Whew, but hey….. My letter to the naturalist from New Hampshire was added to Stacey Cole’s most recent article. I suppose he feels he is protecting my honor by obliquely referring to me as a ‘reader in lafayette’ but when our Maine friend saw this letter she got excited that there was some local beaver contact she didn’t know. She called Stacey directly yesterday! He’s 90 years old and has beavers living on his land who are running out of food. He is having willow brought in to persuade them to stay! God bless Stacey, and Lega for that matter!

Okay, now for a quick round of “BEAVER or NOT” from Ohio Nature Research Photography and Videography. You know one of those sites where you can BUY shots labeled as beaver and run them in your alarmist article about beavers because, you know, you never actually saw one.

Look familiar? It should because that tiny little face with a white muzzle and whiskered button nose is a muskrat. A muskrat! Why do people get away with this? They’d never be able to sell a picture of a hummingbird as an eagle? Anyway, the photographer saw their ‘conical house’ and knew they were beavers. Sheesh. Of course I wrote them and I bet they are BESIDE themselves struggling to correct the mistake.

Now for a treat of epic proportions, check out the just released video from our friends at Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife. I know you are busy and people don’t always have time to click on videos but it’s Sunday, I know you well enough to know you want to so JUST DO IT.

Snips and Tails

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, City Reports, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits May 7, 2012

Now before we get started today I have some housekeeping to attend to. Yesterday I received an email from Joe Eaton, a fast friend of the Martinez Beavers and the author of my favorite article ever on the death of the mother beaver for the Berkeley Daily Planet. He said he stopped by to see the dams and thought they were abandoned (very high tide) and when he checked the website didn’t see any discussion of the Martinez Beavers since March! Were they okay?

I though that since a friendly faced didn’t know, you might not know either! You can always check for new sightings under the “sightings” tab on the menu bar on the top of the page. It will tell you what was seen, where, what time, and by whom. Just in case Joe is not the only one who doesn’t know! The sightings page is managed by Worth A Dam champion Lory Bruno whose friendly face you will see at the silent auction booth this summer. Here’s today’s update

May 7th – 6:15am – One beaver was seen above the primary dam and possibly a sighting of another beaver. Not sure if the same one came out but the second one was a bit smaller it seemed.. It came up to the lodge area and went underwater. Seems like there is something going on at the old lodge and there looked like new branches were on the lodge site, which was heavily mudded Saturday morning.CR

Next, our Kentucky Derby watching friends might find it interesting to know that the logo for the Derby was created by none other that the mother of our beloved Ian Timothy (creator of the beaver creek series).His father of course wrote and performed the music for the series. Here’s photographic proof of a very talented family!

You may remember that last week I wrote about the beavers at Silver Lake in CT which Councilman Thorpe described as “wreaking havoc” on the ecosystem. Of course I wrote him about the good that beaver do for the birds and fish and wildlife and he wrote back (in a manner I can only describe as ‘clipped‘) and said he knew all that but that this area was special because of a sewer line. Which, if true, you might have thought he’d mention to the media. Anyway, there’s a nice rebuttal to his alarms this morning

As the Record-Journal’s Richie Rathsack reported, there’s also evidence that the pond, larger now thanks to the beaver work, is more attractive to other wildlife. He also described dozens of trees along the shore with signs of beaver gnawing, as well as small trails left by beavers dragging trees through the woods to the water’s edge.

My strong suspicion is also that the proprietors of this so-called beaver hut are not paying their proper share of property taxes, and the beavers should probably be told that if there’s any vehicle involved that in Connecticut we tax you when you buy one, while you own one and once again when you sell one. Those trails the beavers are building should also be candidates for some sort of review and taxation, I’d wager.

It’s a clever bit of writing. Go read the whole thing.

Now let’s head even farther East for our final update. With beaver advocates chipping away at the resistance in the United Kingdom, check out this mornings BBC report on beavers in Wales!

It is thought that beavers, while common in medieval Wales, became extinct by the 16th Century. But Ms Girardi said she believed the beavers remained “keystone species,” whose re-introduction would increase biodiversity.

On a final note it’s Monday so if you’re very, very good you can watch this video from Peter Smith at the Wildwood Trust in England. A very stalwart, enthusiastic member of the Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay died two weeks ago, Mike Johnston. So Peter very nobly made sure that one of these kits was named after him. I guess its theoretically possibly you might see something cuter in your entire lifetime, but it surely isn’t likely! Enjoy!