My all time favorite memorial weekend (so far) happened a couple years ago. We were in the sierras and took a drive up to the lake and were crowded with people who had driven up from the valley with their hopeful bathing suits and floaty devices. There were boats and picnics and beach towels at the ready. All of the sudden the towering broken mountain behind the lake shook her shoulders and called in massive cloud cover. There was a patter of rain, and then it started snowing heavily.
There were squeals and swear words and some claps of snow thunder. All the floaties and the swimsuits and the boats packed up and flew down to lower elevations. We were left there in the silence, with only a chorus of very confused frogs croaking at the falling lace. The weirdly sudden freeze snatched all the fallen water into heavy crystals and soon their were giant chandelier dangles at the ends of branches. It was truly a memorial.
Not to be outdone, last night brought a flurry of beaver activity to the dams. First there were conversations with strangers who wanted to know what the “cage-like thing was” in the water (OHHHHHHHH beloved interpretive sign, whence comest thou?) and then some very familiar beaver-fan faces. One kit (yearling, I must call them yearlings, sniff) was out by 8:00 pm and had developed a new habit of taking food into the hidey-hole on the other side of the creek. By 8:30 all three of them were in proud display, and mom came from time to time to get reeds for bedding.
Our yearlings are soo much bigger now, but there is one that’s still small. Maybe 45 lbs and 35 respectively? I did get a good look at mom’s right eye, which contines to look affected. Yesterday I sent cheryl’s photos to a beaver vet tech in New York who will be passing them along to the vet. One thing she wanted to know is if it was the same eye (yes) and if any of the other beavers were affected (no). It was nice to get great views of everyone last night, feeding, wrestling, and reaching for branches, so we could check all pairs.
The very badly bitten muskrat made an appearance and snagged a charity fennel bulb from the dam. Have you seen this little guy? A huge chunk was taken out of him and has since healed. I can’t imagine it was a beaver, because whatever it was he obviously got away from, and I that must mean it was something stuck on land and he managed to pull away and dive. It’s amazing he was able to survive. Last night we all held our breath at his fennel audacity, because of course two yearlings immediately started following him. He dove into the cove and they dove after him and we listened very closely but couldn’t hear cartoon scuffle noises, so I guess he did okay and the risk was worth it.
It was a delightful almost summer beaver evening. What better way to launch memorial day weekend than a visit the beaver dam? You never know what might happen.
