At work on the Secondary

heidi08 Uncategorized May 4, 2011

I am sharing this mornings horrifically blurry video with you so that you can see a plucky beaver swim up with a stick, feel his way through a pile of new willow on the secondary dam, and turn about to do a little poking. He made some repairs and went up to the bank hole where he proceeded to remove a bunch of sticks and mud. I will confess to you now that I have no idea who it was. He was much bigger than the kit I saw last week, (look at his broad nose in the lower video!) Cheryl says smaller than the beaver she photographed yesterday which suggest to me, (along with the fact that a month of rare beaver sightings has left me very stupid) that we have at least three colony members: our littlest kit who loves to use reeds, at least one of our fat kits that have yet to prove themselves as much good at anything, and at least one adult who brought a huge supply of willow. That’s three. Who knows maybe there are still five?

Beavers are remarkable creatures. You might be tired of hearing that from me but this morning I have something REALLY remarkable about them to share. This is a bit of beaver lore so fantastic and anthropomorphic sounding I never dared repeat it in public before. Even I, who admire them so dramatically more than preschool teachers or paramedics, did not believe it and assumed it was a bit of romantic mythology.

Not so much, apparently.

In the glowingly affectionate book “Beaver Sprite“, Dorothy Richards describes that when the kits were ready to disperse the father beaver took them on a trek, found them a nice new habitat, helped them get settled in, and then returned to the colony. Imagine! Of course she brought beavers home to eat in her kitchen, so I thought “yes, that and the tooth fairy are nice stories but lets get back to business.” Then I read this same thing in Enos Mills “In Beaver World” which is slightly less whimsical.

Could this possibly be true? It seemed staggeringly unlikely. I realized almost in passing that all our dispersals have happened without warning or fanfare, but always in periods where we have gone a long time without seeing Dad. Hmm. Of course Dad is harder to see from November to June anyway, it proves nothing, but it disproves nothing either. Last night I got the final data of support that helped me find the courage to report this unbelievable fact.

: Tiller Beaver Research Project, Falcon Creek

So this is one of the relocated research beavers of our friends in Oregon who organized the State of the Beaver Conference. So I asked Leonard Houston, tell me about this old wives tale of beaver parents getting their children settled in new digs? And what do you suppose he answered? “Our telemetry proves it”. Apparently these radar tracked beavers have shown unequivocally that when a kit is ready to ‘launch’ the adults take him out to the edge of the territory (closer to home if the habitat is good, farther if its bad) and get them settled with the start of a bank hole or dam before rejoining the colony. Only Len says their data shows it’s BOTH PARENTS, not just dad.

Would mom go if she had young kits to take care of? Well the way beaver lives work she wouldn’t probably have young kits. She’d be pregnant and maybe have almost-yearlings. So I guess, depending on how far along she was, depending on what time of year kits are born in the region, she’d stay behind, but it sounds like sometimes she’d go help Junior get his start in life.

I guess, from a purely evolutionary self-interest point of view it makes sense to A) make sure you’re offspring moves out of your territory and B) make sure they have a nice place so they don’t come BACK! (Perhaps some parents of adult children could relate. )But still. That is awesome. I love the idea that Dad took our beavers to their new home, where ever it was. It makes their future seem seem so much safer. Say it with me now. Beavers are SO COOL!

: Beaver Closeup – Cheryl Reynolds

Chickadees

heidi08 Uncategorized May 3, 2011

This mornings beaver news will be temporarily interrupted by feathers, but rumor is there will be an AMAZING update to follow. So stay tuned. I thought I’d talk today about Chickadees. These are the tiny, bright, tuxedo-wearing charmers that flitter through your trees and say their own names over and over again so they won’t forget. Here in the Bay Area we have the ‘chestnut backed chickadees’ but in the sierras they have ‘mountain chickadees’ and on the east coast ‘black capped chickadees’. They’re basically the same bird, weighing the same as three whole pennies with more spunk than you might expect from a disney film. In fact chickadees often surprise, which is what I like best about them.

A million years ago in the sierras we had cross country ski’d into a frozen lake that was a campground during the summer months, and now snow filled and abandoned. It had the hush of new fallen snow and the stiff green smell of interlaced firs in every direction. A lone visitor greeted us, twittering about, and we amused ourselves by tossing it crumbs from our snow-picnic. I suppose he had gotten brave with the steady stream of visitors in the summer, and missed the free handouts. He came closer and closer until I decided to try this:

What does it feel like to hold a chickadee? Well, I can only say that your spirit inextricably falls upwards until your hand suddenly seems to be the very heaviest part of your entire body. Mind you, I was holding my entire sandwich in my left hand, close to me, and the crumb in my right hand far from me. The chickadee was not impressed by my efforts to present a stable and unthreatening feeding platform, and he quickly tired of the crumb and landed directly on the sandwich itself

(It made me think of that unforgettable Far Side of the killer whales at sea world leaping up for their tiny reward fish from the hands of the trainer, and one wry whale comments, “I don’t know about you but next time I’m going for the WHOLE ENCHILADA!”)

And this belongs on a beaver website because? Well a few festivals back we ended up with a leftover bluebird box (created ironically by the wife of the cyber hero who started this website!) and the bird box came home with us and was installed on the back fence. Over the weekend our house seemed like chickadee central and I was trying to figure out why. Then yesterday Jon noticed them coming and going from the box where a couple has settled and is raising a suitably noise family.

Remember to keep an eye out for what neighbors your garden might have, and maybe you’ll get lucky enough to have a family whose very name is an onomatopoeia!

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Okay now you’ve all been patient for the big beaver finish! I received this just now from our own Cheryl Reynolds who was out looking for our beavers this morning.

So as I got to the footbridge a beaver was coming up to the bank hole and then went back downstream. When I got up to the bridge I realized it was mudding the beginnings (finally!) of a dam. I then went around to the farthest cut off tree stump to sit and wait. He came back down with lots of mud and then when he saw me he turned around. We know the yearlings don’t do that, they wouldn’t have been bothered by me. Big boy, sleek fur, lots of mud in mouth. I’m pretty sure it’s GQ, although it didn’t seem quite big enough, but you know how they look in the water compared to out. It was NOT a kit.

big nose — This is how its done! Photo - Cheryl Reynolds

Ash, ash —

You poke and stir.

Flesh, bone, there is nothing there—-

Herr God, Herr Lucifer

Beware

Beware.

Out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air.

slyvia plath

Rare Culvert-Blocking Beaver Confounds Connecticut

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Uncategorized, Who's Killing Beavers Now? April 29, 2011

Gosh this NEVER happens. Some inexplicable and uncanny beavers are blocking a culvert in Salem and threatening traffic. Because this kind of behavior is extremely rare and no one EVER has invented a proven solution for it in the past, the authorities need a special permit so they can kill these animals right away, even though trapping season is over. Do you think they’ll be able to get one in time? I’m on pins and needles.

Salem leaders have hired a trapper to remove beavers from a stretch of Rattlesnake Ledge Road that nearly flooded last week after the animals blocked a pair of drainage culverts that run underneath the street. It’s a recurring problem that officials say creates a safety hazard for motorists and leaves the town liable if there’s an accident.

First Selectman Kevin Lyden said the town is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection on the effort, and a long-term solution could be in place soon to keep the animals away permanently. Read more: Beaver dams create potential road flooding hazard in Salem

You’ll be happy to know that Department of Environmental Protection took it upon themselves to protect Salem’s culverts from its beavers and allowed the family to be exterminated. I’m told the selected selectman assures us that even though this is a temporary solution he will be planning a permanent solution for NEXT TIME. I can’t wait.

Okay, I’ve only written about this about this 438 times, in counties from Georgia to Saskatchewan, but maybe its time for an easy visual syllogism instead:

If this

Then this

Still too esoteric and subtle? Just watch the movie version:

heidi08 Uncategorized April 22, 2011

Worth A Dam

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental, Uncategorized April 19, 2011

The dam is the largest and in many respects the most influential beaver work. Across a stream it is an inviting thorough fare for the folk of the wild. As soon as a dam is completed, it becomes a wilderness highway. It is used day and night. Across it go bears and lions. rabbits and wolves, mice and porcupines; chipmonks use it for a bridge, birds alight upon it, trout attempt to leap itand in the evening the deer cast their reflections with the willows in its quiet pond. Across it dash the pursuer and the pursue. Upon it take place battles and courtships. Often it is torn by hoof and claw. many a drama, romantic and picturesque, fierce and wild is staged upon the beaver dam.

p. 73 Enos Mills In Beaver World

Is that the loveliest thing you’ve ever read? I had to stop and read it aloud and send it to everyone connected to the story. I can’t recommend “In Beaver World” highly enough. It is less sentimental than Lily Pond, not as intrusive as Beaver Sprite and more scientific than Grey Owl. It is both less and more flattering to its subject than Lewis Henry Morgan, and oddly more observant than Muller-Schwarze. It is forcing me to read it in teaspoons so that I make sure to appreciate every vividly descriptive paragraph. Surprisingly, I’m on page 85 and haven’t yet read anything untrue. In fact he has a few things to say about beaver myths in general noting “One might read almost the entire mass of printed matter concerning the beaver without obtaining correct information about his manners and customs or an accurate description of his works and without getting at the real character of this animal“ Wow. Can I get an Amen?

The two things he has written that have raised my eyebrows are so firmly embedded in the midst of the verified the beaver-behavior we have closely observed over the years, that I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. The first is that the beavers at one of his locations allow other families into their lodges and maintain lodges with up to 30 beavers. Hard to imagine, but I suppose not impossible. The second, and equally impressive, is that he had seen a beaver kill a bobcat on two occasions, again not outside the realm of imagination, but surprising none the less. His observations are so accurate and respectful of the animals that they have taken my breath as often as they have expelled it. Remember this is a lone man in the field, nearly a hundred years ago, just watching. No radio collars, tail beacons, or radar. Only a man with keen and quiet observations, day in and day out, in every season and weather, over many years and across many colonies and regions.

I was especially surprised to find this paragraph basically presaging the research of Michael Pollock 80 years ahead of its time, and describing the principal of hyporheic exchange about 65 years before it was ever discussed in scientific circles.

The Beaver dam gives new character to the landscape. It frequently alters the course of a stream and changes the topography. It introduces water into the scene. It nourishes new plant life. It brings new birds. It provides harbor and a home for fish throughout the changing seasons. It seizes sediment and soil from the rushing waters and it sends waters through subterranean ways to form and feed springs which give bloom to terraces below.

p.74 Enos Mills In beaver World

Did I mention it’s a good book? If you aren’t sure its worth your hard earned dollars to pick up a used copy at Amazon, Google has it mostly online and its well worth the read.

Our own beaver sightings are frustratingly inconsistent at the moment. Cheryl and I scoured the area for beavers this morning without success. Of the morning’s labors I can only report:

Beavers: 0

Mosquitoes: 2