Recent Sightings – Page 9

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.

Now that’s a face!

heidi08 New Species, Recent Sightings February 12, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

This is a river otter. Don’t get it confused with a sea otter. (I was talking about beavers at an event and a woman said, “ohhh i love beavers! I love when they lay on their backs and crack shells on their tummy.” Sigh)…..This amazing photo was taken yesterday by our own esteemed Cheryl Reynolds at the primary dam. Shhh don’t tell the beavers but it is very nearly my favorite she has taken so far. Looking at that face it is impossible to confuse this animal with a beaver. The whiskers, the wide nose, the stubby head, and the entire lack of chin, mark it distinctly. Well that and the fact that this little powerhouse sat atop the flow device eating fish all morning.

He was using the flow device as a water slide yesterday, going up and down the tube, which is pretty darn sweet, and worthy of a documentary on animal adaptions. Think about it, if an otter can go through a pipe, so can a salmon. Jon says otters go through lots of pipes at the powerplant cooling station, and even play with the “echo” while they’re inside, chirping and barking to eachother to hear it sound differently.

Several beaver fans turned out to watch otter delights yesterday. For the record, they couldn’t be more different from beavers. Otters seem to me to be little furry hedonists. They live entirely for pleasure. Whatever they do they relish with abandon, and whatever they dislike they don’t do. Otters play and love and quarrel passionately, they chew loudly like a two year old eating a favorite meal, they show up at strange hours and keep their own council. Bob Arnebeck says it isn’t even reasonable to ask questions like “how many fish do otters eat a day”, because their “day” is shifting and different than ours – 26 hours one day and 22 the next.. They eat when they feel like it, and move on from an area suddenly without saying goodbye — which our little fellow will do any day now, so go see him before its too late.

Also, check out the amazing and evolving entry on Flow Devices by our wonderful wikipedia friend. This is gonna save a LOT of beavers!

Otterly Delightful!

heidi08 New Species, Recent Sightings February 10, 2010

Photos: Cheryl Reynolds

All week we’ve been getting reports of a young otter hanging out at the beaver dam. Cheryl watched him monday morning, Jon watched him yesterday around noon, and I had to see for myself this morning. Unlike beavers, otters are carnivores who greatly enjoy the handy fish tanks beaver ponds provide. They are much sleeker and faster than beavers, and they never appear even for a moment to be resting or contemplative.

In this horrible grainy footage you see first the small otter’s head and the curve of his tail. Then the wide triangle of mom’s head as she comes out of the lodge to defend her space and look imposing, followed by the dart under the water of our little interloper. We will keep trying to get some better footage, but in the mean time you had better just wander down and see for yourself. Otters keep their own schedules and he will likely be seen for a while at all hours.

Want some other good news? Read this article on the Pennsylvania beavers. Looks like the Lawrence County Conservation Commission is going to use nonlethal methods instead of killing those “soldier beavers”.

They agreed to consider a water- flow-control device or “beaver baffler” suggested in a letter to commissioners from Laura Simon, field director, Urban Wildlife Program of the U.S. Humane Society in Woodbridge, Conn. Simon said the device would solve the problem of beaver dams’ causing flooding at the affected culvert along the bike trail, which is owned and maintained by the county. Commissioners also promised that whatever solution they choose will be humane.

Go Laura! And all of you who wrote! Looks like Mr Osbourn will not get any contracts this round. This was my favorite part. It is an almost verbatim quote from our city council.

“I have learned more about beavers in the last week than I have in my entire life,” commented DeBlasio.

Ahhh take a moment to savor that quote over coffee. Considering that Mr. DeBlasio very recently believed a man who told him that he was going to trap the “soldier beavers” and leave the “grandfathers”, I really, really believe that. Live and Learn.

Morning’s at seven

heidi08 Beaver News, New Species, Recent Sightings January 31, 2010

Look who was visiting the primary dam this morning! Fishing all around the tangled flow device with his greedy appetite. It’s been a good long while since I have seen cormorants that high up in the creek. I remember the eager one when staff first lowered the dam a million (pre-flowdevice) years ago. He came right in the middle of the crowd of workers, determined to be the only mouth at the damside when all those fish were pushed to the drain.

This morning was a foggy, peaceful, and beaver-less visit. I don’t know if I was too early or too late to catch the show, but several people assured me they had been there in the dark. I strolled down to check out the woodduck boxes, and stopped to listen for frogs. The third dam is looking fairly repaired, although the fourth is entirely gone. The damlet and canal were in stark relief because of the nicely low tide. There were plenty of cooperative beaver footprints in view.

Yesterday Jon tried something new to protect the chewed trees at the primary dam. Sand-painting. It has been recommended that painting the trunks with sand discourages beaver nibbling as they dislike the gritty texture. The paint is non-toxic and won’t harm them even if they persevere. We’ll see what happens. He had wire-wrapped them after the new year’s feeding frenzy but the wire disappeared,(whether by overly fastidious staff or beaver-defenders of grand compassion we couldn’t say). The sand isn’t likely to go anywhere, and as the color is matched to the trunk it shouldn’t be a problem for the city.

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!

Robert Browning: Pippa Passes

What lives in that trashy old creek, anyway?

heidi08 Beaver News, New Species, Recent Sightings January 11, 2010

Photo: Green Heron at Primary Dam 1-10-10 Cheryl Reynolds

Just in case you wondered what that crabby green heron is doing when he seems to be standing so still and looking for lost change in the water: here’s a hint. Look at the size of that fish. Not a meager challenge for a bird that can’t chew. This picture was take too early in the morning for great light, but its a fantastic glimpse of his culinary treasure. Anyone recognize the victim? Fish ID help?

We saw two yearlings this morning, and had a lovely close encounter with mom as she rooted around in the dam sticks for a treasure she just knew was there. Her eyes look the same, maybe a little better, but she is active and groomed and went home to sleep in the lodge.

If the fates are kind to us this year she is already pregnant. It was early January two years ago when Moses showed me footage of the parents nearly mating. That’s how we first knew mom had the different tail mark. (You could tell who was who by what they were um…doing). Now we just hope they um…do it again and give us kits for 2010.

Fingers crossed.