Relocation: Not A Happy Ending?

Bi-yearlings?

heidi08 Beaver News, kits October 26, 2009

Worth A Dam has been quietly mourning the fact that we had no kits that survived this year. It is hard to know why that was, but we know some reasons why it wasn’t. It was not because of inadequate food supply, because the rest of our family is looking quite fat and happy. Our beavers are eating mainly tulles with a side of willow, and with the entire marina at their disposal they aren’t running out of cattails any time soon. It was also probably not because the mink ate them. A beaver kit, even newborn, is the size of a guinea pig and a mink is smaller than a cat. Also mink are notoriously messy eaters and would likely leave clues. Jon has been checking the creek in the kayak and hasn’t seen signs of what happened. One benefit of the mink is that they are very high on the food chain, so if they were here and thriving it gives us an important clue about creek health, which suggest that it probably wasn’t something bad in the water either.

It may have something to do with mom’s eye condition, and her not being well enough to care for them. From what we could see she stopped milk production early and she may have just been unable to feed them. Or maybe they weren’t around anymore so milk production wasn’t triggered. A good portion of beaver watching is guesswork, and to be honest, we just don’t know why we didn’t have surviving kits this year. We hope its a one-time event, and that we get a new batch next year, but we just don’t know what will happen.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Which brings me to the title of this post. What happens next year? Normally kits hang around and become yearlings and last year’s-yearlings take off and become adults. What happens when you skip a generation? Our three yearlings are still here and healthy and almost ready for the world. Will 2008 beavers be “failure to launch” yearlings? Will they stick around for an extra lesson in dam building and become bi-yearlings? The research says they can stay with the colony 2-3 years, so this could be the three they’re talking about. How will Mom and Dad feel about them sticking around? Aren’t you curious?

Speaking of curious, if you want to know more about the origins of algae bloom that is causing so much grief for the north coast’s seabirds (and our VP of wildlife!) check out this slideshow and lecture from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s a great introduction to the issue.

Flurry

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental, kits May 26, 2009

After the thrill of good news that we were the proud guardians of four baby beavers in Alhambra creek Once Again, there was a lot of work to be done. Linda rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and started chatting beavers with the media, which I’m sure you heard a little something about. Cheryl has been devotedly at the dam site trying to capture photos of our elusive quartet, and I have been avidly making and launching video, updating the website (In the past 24 hours we’ve had 2000 page views and web traffic from all over) and returning emails to folks who saw the story, and wanted to be involved.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds 2008

This beloved picture is from last years brood, and I just received a copy of its appearance in the teacher’s edition of the Califonia Education and the Environment Initiative, “surviving and thriving” science curriculum which will be distributed to every 1st grade teacher in the state. Looking at this picture you can see why Cheryl should be given ample opportunity to be photographing the next generation. (So if you want to help out, go have drinks at Left Bank and tip her enormously so she can have more free time!)

Some wrote to complain that beavers should be exterminated and no city should have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on sheetpile “to protect them”. ARGGGHHH!!!! I don’t even react to the beavers-are-rodents-kill-them arguments anymore, but the sheetpile mythology makes makes my teeth hurt. Lets try this once more. The sheetpile wall was not built to protect the beavers. In fact, beaver supporters took the city to court to stop it, spent a great deal of money and time to fight it, and lost. The sheetpile wall was not even built to protect the bank, because historical photographs show us that there is another sheetpile wall directly behind it.

The sheetpile wall was built to protect the city’s relationship with a very important property owner. Period. Next question. Allow me to welcome any new visitors curious about this issue by inviting you to look at this video.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=rQefxDQemaA]

In the middle of this very busy beaver drama, we are trying to get ready for Wednesday’s creek seekers express visit. Martinez is hosting 50 visitors who will arrive on Amtrak, eat lunch and tour the habitat, and then come to Armando’s for a talk on the watershed by Igor Skaredoff, and a talk on the beavers by me. I’m still madly trying to add last minute footage to the powerpoints, and make arrangements for whose picking up lunches, drinks, and reminding the city to turn off the sprinklers. i’m fairly certain I have the basic talking points down pat, but there will be media and significant environmental players in attendance, so I want to make sure my beaver pitch is tuned to its most convincing

Congratulations also to Chuck who is the winner of our “baby pool”. Along with 9 others he guessed that mom would have four kits, and his name was drawn at random. He will be getting a Worth A Dam tshirt and the envy of all his neighbors. If you’d like a tshirt of your very own, drop us a line or come see us June 7th at the REI environmental fair.

Once we just get through wednesday then we can worry about the following week, when we have tree planting, a beaver class and REI to keep us busy….

Creek Cove Hides Baby Beavers

News10.net – ‎14 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits were spotted in a downtown Martinez creek, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver advocacy group …

Four More Baby Beavers Spotted In Martinez Creek

CBS 5 – ‎15 hours ago‎

Read more in our Privacy Policy A baby beaver, like the ones found in Martinez. AP Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown …

KCBS

Four Beaver Kits Spotted in Martinez Creek

KCBS – ‎15 hours ago‎

MARTINEZ, Calif. (KCBS) — Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, …

MARTINEZ: FOUR BEAVER KITS SPOTTED IN ALHAMBRA CREEK

CBS 5 – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Martinez Beaver Family Adds 4 Fuzzy Babies

NBC Bay Area – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Baby beavers born near downtown Martinez

KGO-TV – ‎16 hours ago‎

A video from a beaver advocacy group Worth A Dam shows four new kits, or baby beavers, in Alhambra Creek. That brings to the total number of beavers living …

NEWS FLASH

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, kits May 30, 2009

Confirmed sighting of FOUR new kits near the lodge. Footage here from Moses Silva.Have a cigar, Martinez. It’s a beaver!

Christening Party at the beaver dam and everyone’s invited! Worth A Dam’s core gathered at the water last night to see if it was really true. We were treated to a beaver display of grand proportions, Mom, Dad, three yearlings and two very persistent muskrats. There were even two tail slaps by Dad, although we never figured out what he was warning about.

Stalwart and intrepid videographer, Moses Silva, sought us out bearing a camera brimming with news. In the wee hours of the morning he had donned waders and strode through the water to find four new kits in a cove near the beaver dam. He filmed them with a flashlight taped to his camera. They had obviously been left outside in a protected area to get used to their surroundings. Click on the video above to see what he saw.

The group was giddy and celebratory. After all the “sheet” these beavers have been through this year, we wondered if there would even be kits, or if there would only be a few. Instead there is photographic evidence that there are four chubby and healthy little fuzzballs. In the video you can see them practicing grooming and nuzzling each other. Their teeth are very prominent, possibly because they haven’t yet started gnawing much to wear them down.

For those of you keeping track at home, this brings our current colony total to 9: two adults, three yearlings, and four new kits. Somewhere out there are two dispersers trying to set up life on their own. That makes a total of 9 healthy offspring mom and dad have brought into the world, and I got to watch. The notion that this is the third time I’ve been here makes me a little misty-eyed.

What better way to welcome wednesday’s creek-seekers train journey than with brand new babies?

Beaver Diva

heidi08 kits December 1, 2008

Last night a few old timers stood on the bridge and watched one of this year’s kits enjoying a treat. S/he was actually fairly picturesque, hands raised, face up, and expression of almost teddybear adorableness. One of the yearlings snuffled up for a taste and the size difference was substantial. We had been bemoaning how “big they’d gotten”, thinking about the little beaver bundles we use to have back in July. Then we saw big brother and went OHHHHHHHHHHHHH they’re still little!

I describe the idyllic appearance of the little kit in order to set the contrast for little monster behavior that follows. When big brother, who was 30 lbs heavier and 2 feet longer, appeared to be approaching the treat, the little beaver diva SNAPPED and chased him away, as siblings have done since the beginning of reproduction. This is MY treat!

Big brother obligingly dove under the water. At first we thought to escape the diva, but then we observed he came back with a nicely preserved willow branch. They must have an underwater food cache in the vicinity. And as the diva beaver watched his sibling carry away something much more desireable than he’d prevented him from having you could almost hear the rivalry:

“Mom always liked you best!”

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=cTdZ71scwik]

Beaver Tug-of-War…

heidi08 kits, New Species September 11, 2008

Last night there was delightful beaver viewing below the Marina Vista bridge. Three kits whining and mewing to each other over who was getting the best blackberry branch. The fourth kit, who appears to go his own way, was in residence not to far off. (So those who have worried do we still have four, yes, we do!)

The kits would chew down the branches like corn on the cob, making loud smacking noises on the way. The newest shoots were the tastiest and first eaten, then the leaves, then the stalk unless something better came along. They ate with such speed it reminded me of being a child and trying to eat a treat very quickly before your sibling came in and wanted a bite.

At one point one lucky kit decided he’d take his branch away from his brothers to enjoy in private. As he swam off, the littlest fellow grabbed onto the end of the branch. For a while the pair had a tug-of-war in the water, each pulling the tendril in opposite directions. Then the bigger kit decided just to swim off anyway and pulled his brother a ways through the water. The little one quickly bit through the branch and acheived his own freedom, but eventually picked up the branch and decided to follow his sibling anyway.

Quite a show.

Envious of their acquatic cuteness, a family of raccoons approached the bridge for their share of oohs and ahhhs. There were about five little ones, and they followed mom up the oak tree at the edge of the bridge. We thought they were hiding from human threats, and then noticed the tree was bursting with acorns. Each little raccoon made his clambering way out onto the skinniest branches to strip them from the tree. There were sounds of crunching and glimpses of black-and-white-bandit-heads on every furthest branch. Like a omnivorous Christmas tree. I of course left my camera at home that night, but this is from our own Cheryl Reynolds on a prior visit.