How rude! It was perfectly dusky by 6:30 last night but our beavers made us shiver and wait for them until 7:20 before Jr came strolling out lazily looking for breakfast. Maybe the super high tide had something to do with his late arrival, but he was immediately joined by an adult beaver. At first I thought it was mom, but this beaver was bigger than mom and less cautious than dad. Also Jr didn’t react to the adult at all, no whining like last week. I had been assuming our three 2010 yearlings had all moved on, but obviously we still have at least one of them. This was one of our two larger beavers we called the ‘bookends’ because they were exactly the same size, (and Reed was so little)! So we have at least 4 beavers. Maybe more?
Another couple at the dam were insisting that the last time they were there they had seen two kits side by side with two different color tails. Sigh. I wish more than anything we were lucky enough to have two! And he was lucky enough to have a companion! But it’s October. We first saw him four months ago. In the 5 years we have been spotting kits we have always seen all the siblings by the first week or so. It’s more likely that the couple saw mom (who is smaller) and Jr together and assumed they were 2 kits because we have always seen more than one.
KH and JO had seen something ‘dead’ on the dam earlier in the week (not a beaver) getting eaten by a rat. In our long beaver wait last night we were able to see it was the massive head of a sturgeon, harvested by some fisherman and lopped cleanly off with a knife. Either it was dumped in the creek or floated in with the tide, but we were happy to solve the mystery at least.
Our friends at the Ottawa-Carlton Wildlife Centre sent this, with a note that they made sure to include lots of “beaver” references because Mayor Jim Watson will be attending the event where it’s shown. Enjoy and share!
