Yesterday we learned that our resident videographer caught an otter sitting on the bank near the primary dam. Either he can’t read the sign or he has no fear of the MPD, but he climbed all the way up onto the bank to enjoy a nice meal. Some have suggested that this nice meal might have been a few members of the muskrat families that you no longer see at the dam. Otters are carnivores and they are known to eat the occasional muskrat, kit or baby duck. This was filmed around 6 in the morning over the weekend. Maybe its time to start early morning visits to the dam again.
What could possibly be more exciting than otter? Mutual grooming! We’ve been expecting to see this and never gotten the chance. It was filmed at the fallen tree recently. Grooming isn’t beaver vanity, its a matter of life and death. Their fur needs to be sealed with castor from their own glands, otherwise it isn’t waterproof. They even have a special split claw on their back foot to comb through their fine hairs. As much time as they must spend grooming, it is frustrating that we haven’t caught it yet on film. Hopefully we can get the images up soon. For a closer look at beaver fur, check out this video from our friends Sharon & Owen Brown of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=XNFtlG6HsIE]
Worth A Dam had a meeting last night to plan our Art in the Park appearance and talk about the success of the festival. We had enthusiastic new attendees, including Kelly from Wells Fargo who was kind enough to hold the spot light for our videographer’s filming of mutual grooming, and Jean who has been a longtime supporter. Our beloved treasurer Donna will be resigning because of life complexities, and we agreed our new treasurer would be the tree-wrapping, kayak cleaning, tour-giving, Jon. Jon and I have been married 22 years now and he seems pretty trustworthy so far. Lets have a big welcome aboard for the new treasurer who is also a birthday boy today. New t-shirts were presented last night and if you are working on your Martinez Beaver collection you won’t want to miss the one we will offer Sunday. Come this weekend support the arts and the beavers!
