Category: New Species

Pater Castorium

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species June 15, 2012

Jennifer Viegas is the science blogger for the Discovery News website. I can no longer remember how we crossed paths but as she lives in the city she certainly heard something about the Martinez Beaver bruhaha. I joined facebook primarily to have contact with her, since she was too famous at the time to email. I sent her the article from Wildcare and she liked the idea of beaver fatherhood as a story angle. Yesterday she wrote that she had pitched the idea to her higherups and gotten permission for a beaver-related post. Could I provide some photos and quotes for the story?

Of course I could. This morning I was rewarded with some beautiful writing and great beaverpress! Go read the whole thing and like it on facebook if you’re so inclined! I will correct proudly that the first photo is MINE not Cheryl’s and is in fact a screen grab from video I shot that night….other than that there is only one part that’s wrong, and that is that we never saw dad work on the lodge. That was always mom’s domain. All in all a perfect way to start off father’s day weekend.

Beaver dads are often among the best in the animal kingdom, but one beaver widower who lost his long-time mate merits special attention. “Dad,” who lives in a Martinez, Calif. beaver colony, was suddenly left with three young kits to care for when his devoted partner died of an infection. They had previously raised 12 other kits together.

Heidi Perryman, president and founder of Worth a Dam, told Discovery News, “We were worried about their (the three kits’) safety. Would Dad be able to provide for them and could he care for them as well as she did? Would they learn everything they needed to know without a mother?

Go read the whole thing! It’s well worth your time, and Jennifer was even kind enough to post my dad video (set to the tear-inducing vocals of Charlie Hayden) which has me very, very pleased. I also like how it implies mom’s tail scar was some kind of special uber-design, rather than the healing mark of an old injury. There’s a children’s book in there somewhere: beaver embarrassed about scar, scar turns out to be the thing that everybody recognizes and loves about the beaver, and that beaver goes on to save countless other beavers. The moral is that you shouldn’t be afraid of what makes you different, because its what makes you special and unique! Are you with me?

When Mom was alive, Dad never received much onlooker attention because Mom was such a crowd favorite. She had a distinctively patterned tail that made her easily identifiable.

Dad may not have such natural tail bling, but he’s now drawing fans in California. His family seems to think he’s pretty amazing too.

Cheryl sent this excellent (though uncomfortable) looking photo this am from her visit to the secondary dam. The green Heron had just caught a mouthful that expert Peter Moyle at UC Davis identified as a nice native fish: the Prickly Sculpin. Ow! That’s got to be the breakfast of very careful champions!

Green Heron eating Prickly Sculpin - Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Beavers Abroad

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, New Species, Video June 14, 2012

How the British Beaver is back in business

Capture — The Escot Estate has been at the forefront in reintroducing beavers to Britain

Along with boar, otters and water voles, beavers and red squirrels are being brought back to Britain in places like the beautiful Escot Estate in West Devon.

Over the past 35 years, conservationists have started to reintroduce the species. Today, there are believed to be at least half a million of the fat, furry herbivores (they don’t eat fish) swimming about all over Europe.

Apart from Britain, that is. We’ve been a bit slow to catch on. But, finally, in 2009 three beaver families were released in Argyll and there have been small projects in England, too. Just last month a young male was discovered living in a slurry pit in Cornwall, suggesting that beavers could well be breeding in the wild.

Escot led the way in this revival. They acquired a pair of Bavarian beavers in 2006, after John-Michael saw them in Poland and fell in love with the species. The pair bonded and in 2008 produced some of the first kits seen in the UK in 400 years.

Ohh, I just love reading an article in the Telegraph where people admit they fell in love with beavers! Seems Johm-Michael Epcot has been working hard to teach locals and tourists about the benefit of bringing beavers back to the landscape. He already has a sympathetic ear in the media: the article reads like a eulogy.

Beavers might be thriving at Escot, but their fate throughout Britain is still far from certain. While conservationists lobby for the reintroduction all over the UK, many landowners object to their impact on the habitat.

“What people don’t understand is that they’re actually helping the environment,” says John-Michael. “Yes they can change the landscape. But by creating small tributaries and still pools of water, they help encourage insects. Which, in turn, attracts bird life. “They can help people, too. At Escot we had a disused Victorian brick bathing pool, which I spent most of my childhood trying to repair. Within weeks of the beavers’ arrival, they’d filled it up. And they keep the trees nice and neat. If there are any we don’t want nibbled, we just pop some chicken wire around the base of the trunk.”

Nicely done – (although I would only recommend chicken wire if your beavers happened to be the same size as chickens.) Still, it effectively communicates that there are ways to protect what you want without killing beavers. Apparently the breeding female was killed last year when the tree she was chewing fell on her. Her two kits eventually died as well. In a manner I can only describe as obliquely British Mr. Epcot describes her as beloved, fondly missed, and DELICIOUS!

Yes, they ate her.

Go read the article for yourself, it makes sense in a respecting-nature living-off-the-land kinda way. Anyway he is obviously a friend, and just a nudge away from starting beaver festival UK. There are sure a lot of ‘private beavers’ in Devon. I’d be very surprised if they didn’t take reintroduction matters into their own hands — er — paws eventually!

Last night at the dam we were entertained by a very enthusiastic juvenile western grebe who fished like he was chasing greased pigs through a commuter train platform, and dove like the water surface was so hard that penetrating it required a running start. Here, let me show you a little of what I mean.

There was a cluster of old friends, beaver defenders and Worth A Dam regulars on the bridge, and we were all rewarded with lots of this:

Really, in the few weeks we have left before solstice starts to rob our very log days, you should come down and see Alhambra Creek’s version of waterworld for yourself.

Wood Duck Diligance

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, New Species May 19, 2012

Life is just ‘ducky’ in Yooper backyards

By Karen Wils , Daily Press Escabana MI

I think almost every landowner has tried to entice the woods ducks on the property by putting up nesting boxes along their waterways. The flashy little wood duck is a handsome red-eyed, copper and green-feathered fellow. Wood ducks are designed to nest in the cavities of hollow, old trees near lakes and rivers. When humans make their homes near the water, they often remove all the dead or dying trees, leaving no good places for the woodies to nest.

Ahh those flashy wood ducks. People put up boxes hoping they’ll move in but they stubbornly insist upon the real thing. Dead tree real estate with a view of the water. Funny thing – you know what raises the water table, covers some tree roots, and makes some nice dead trees near the water? I’ll give you a hint. It starts with a B?

That’s why many wildlife groups make and distribute the wooden nesting boxes. My family and I have hung a few nesting boxes near the river and along the beaver pond. Even though I see wood ducks swimming betwixt and between the beavers and have watched the wood ducks eating acorns, never have I seen them using a nesting box.

Well okay, maybe beavers do leave dead trees that create ideal wood duck nesting habitat. But only in the back woods, right? Far away from everything. I mean we’d never get wood ducks in the city, right?

: Wood ducks Mom and babies in Civic Park Walnut Creek 2012 – Brian Murphy

Brian is a good beaver friend and has been at every festival. He helped our boyscout Mitchell put in our duck boxes and works very hard to put wood duck boxes on urban creeks from Walnut Creek to Concord and San Ramon. Looks like the Bay Area needs more beavers!

(Just sayin’.)

Speaking of remarkable baby ducks, Jon stopped off this morning to watch a beaver mudding the primary dam and saw all 11 ducklings in the Annex. Also both mom and dad standing guard. So far so good!

Otters, otters everywhere!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species April 16, 2012

River otters rebounding with hospitable habitat

The most happy-go-lucky denizen of Bay Area creeks is back, after a hiatus of at least three decades: the river otter. “They look like they’re having a wonderful time out there. It’s really exciting to see,” said Steve Bobzien, a wildlife ecologist for the East Bay Regional Park District. “Plus, it’s a really good biological indicator of the health of the ecosystem.”

“The more we look for otters, the more we find. It seems like they’re everywhere,” said Megan Isadore, a naturalist from Forest Knoll who started the River Otter Ecology Project and Otter Spotter website. “It’s wonderful – everyone loves otters.”

This lovely article by our old friend Carolyn Jones appeared in the SF Chronicle this weekend. We’ve been having a lot of contact with new the River Otter Ecology folks and are excited about their upcoming visit to the Martinez Beavers and display at the beaver festival this summer. They have accomplished so much in such a small amount of time I’m thrilled to see what they will do next!

Otters were once found in almost every creek and lake in Northern California, but their numbers seriously dwindled until the 1970s because of hunting, habitat loss and pollution. Particularly harmful was mercury, which seeped into the crayfish, clams, mussels and other shellfish that otters dine on.

One place where otters still get killed is in conibear traps that are planted in the water and set for beavers. Accidental otter deaths reported by APHIS were very high in 2009, which everyone agree is horrible. Of course, since they were killed by ‘accident’ I couldn’t possibly overlook the ‘killed on purpose’ beaver deaths of the same origin, but saving otters seems as good a reason as any not to use traps.

You may have noticed that Otters are the fun, graceful, popular step child of the watershed family. They make friends easily and don’t do anything that destructive or upsetting. Although they don’t keep a regular address, they’re easier to see in the daytime and very exciting to watch. Even if you worry about them eating up your fish, they tend not to stay in one place long enough for it to be a problem. I can’t help but think that otters have it easy.

Beavers, on the other hand, pretty much sleep in the cupboard under the stairs.

Marin seems to have the biggest concentration of otters, and the population there appears to have skirted the worst of the hunting and pollution impacts. Otters are in virtually every creek and reservoir but especially seem to favor water treatment plants and anyplace with lots of salmon, Herlocker said. They’re so plentiful a few have even been hit by cars, prompting at least one “Otter Crossing” sign – on Lucky Drive in Larkspur.

Marin has the most otters? Really? Just curious, but how many beavers does Marin have?

Scientists don’t know much about otters’ population figures in the Bay Area – no official counts are available – but Isadore hopes to change that. With her Otter Spotter program, she’s encouraging members of the public to help document otters’ behavior and whereabouts so scientists can identify their corridors and ranges, eating and breeding habits and general population trends. That kind of information will help show a more complete picture of otters’ health as a species, as well as a hint of the general state of Bay Area watersheds.

Otter Spotter Program! I love that! Every beaver watcher should be an otter spotter too of course! Our own Cheryl Reynolds just visited the beavers in Lake Herman and found that the beaver in question was none to pleased about the otter he spotted! (Since it’s April and their are likely young kits about, otters aren’t going to be welcomed in beaver ponds at the moment.)

Well it’s a watershed moment for our creeks and streams and otters can be its darlings while beavers work quietly in the background! We’re as happy as can be that you’re involved in keeping an eye on our waterways, and welcome to the family!

A Badgerly Spirit

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species March 5, 2012

Susan Kirks, an acupuncturist by day, became mesmerized by the plight of the American badger. Photo by Elizabeth Proctor.

Recognize this smiling face? Susan Kirks of PLAN and badger fame was the featured article recently on the Bay Nature Website. It is such a grand read I am sure your heart will feel better at the end of it than it does right now. I may have to start a whole new podcast series! Badgers of Change!

By Elizabeth Proctor — published February 20, 2012

In west Petaluma, a hilly, treeless plot of land will be declared the Paula Lane Nature Preserve next month because of the tenacious work of local residents who were inspired by an equally tenacious creature — the American badger.

At the forefront of the effort is Susan Kirks, who co-founded the Paula Lane Action Network (PLAN) in 2001 in order to keep the 11-acre property out of the hands of housing developers. The 10 year land battle is coming to a close, but to Kirks there’s still work to be done. At 58, Kirks, an acupuncturist by day, has made a life’s mission out of studying, protecting, and providing PR for this much maligned member of the weasel family.

Inspired yet? You all understand by now what it means when someone gets summoned by an impulse to make a difference and devotes their life to it even when it has nothing to do ostensibly with their own self-interests or training or day job? I recognized Susan as a familiar (s)hero many years ago when she wrote some lovely articles about the Martinez Beavers.. She’s been an indispensable display at the festival for three years now and her cheerful articles first from Petaluma 360 and now from Petaluma Patch have been a reliable beaver defense from the North.

Always willing to provide a pithy quote to the media, beaver friend Brock Dolman (who is basically Susan’s neighbor but the pair had never connected until I introduced them) had this to say to the reporter.

“I think there is a symbolic connection to make around the tenacity that she has shown, that badgerly spirit of digging in and not being deterred,” said Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. “She could see the value of Paula Lane, and the badger became the totem species that represented a lot of that value.”

Badgerly spirit indeed! Susan’s spirit is the uber-badger! Her persistance never fails to take my breath! Long time readers of this blog will already know the surreal story that as a toddler I was given a stuffed real badger by a quirky neighbor. I’m not sure I knew it was dead, but I thought it was the most furry, beautiful and ferocious thing I had ever seen. I of course demanded to be allowed to carry it everywhere – even to bed. Calvin and Hobbes had nothing on Heidi and her badger. As weird as it is, I have often thought that that early badger alliance imbued somehow a tenacious spirit. Of course its one of the first things I ever told Susan which immediately made us fast friends.

No word yet on whether she ever had a stuffed beaver…

Just how Kirks fell in love with badgers, of all creatures, dates back to her arrival in the neighborhood 12 years ago. Having moved to west Petaluma with her two rescued horses, it wasn’t long before Kirks began to notice holes in the ground. A friend told her they were badger dens, which piqued her curiosity. She began to spend much of her time observing the land.

Kirks said her connection to the badgers at Paula Lane is healing and has reignited her childhood passion for the outdoors.

“The funny thing is, I never intended to become a naturalist that has a body of knowledge about the American badger,” Kirks said, laughing. “But the more I came to understand the species, the more I realized what a significant role it plays in ecosystems.”

Go read the entire, lovely article and tell your friends to do the same. It’s a beautiful description of what graceful tenacity looks like up close. I’m so glad Bay Nature has started to give her the credit she deserves, and so very happy Susan is in the world taking care of badgers!

Now just in case you can’t face Monday without your daily dose of beaver-trivia, I have a great story from Florida. This weekend I happened upon the tale of an unexpected visitor in Tallahasee, where apparently Luke Barnhill came home to find a beaver cooling in his swimming pool. He promptly called the St. Francis Wildlife Association which came and removed the animal and will find it someplace better to reside I hope. (Can’t you hear the beaver now? You want me to go where? There’s alligators out there!) I gave them a donation this weekend and told them where to look for more information, but this fun story is as good an excuse as any to post my Very Favorite Beaver Photos Ever.

Years ago they were posted on the internet by a couple from Dallas who may have started out bemused about the visit but were told by a wildlife company that beavers carry disease and eventually chased this little fellow out of their yard with a pool scrape. Never mind their mean-spirited response. These lovely photos make the entire episode worthwhile. Whenever I fear beavers may have taken over my life I always look at them fondly. I especially like the one of the beaver at the bottom of the pool. Remember when you were two and you’d close your eyes and think no one could see you? He’s hiding from the photographer! Sneaky huh?