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Fancy meeting you here!

heidi08 Recent Sightings, Video July 31, 2011

This morning’s visit to the dam started with shadows, first a gray tailed phantom below the secondary dam which turned out to be a raccoon walking feeling his paws blindly downstream in search of tasty morsels. Apparently it was working rather well because he went as far as I could see in his swirling, hurple-gait. (And yes hurple is a word and it describes exactly what raccoons do since their front and back legs aren’t the same length.)

Then Reed loomed onto the scene, floating very slowly so he could keep an eye on the interloper. When the raccoon moved out of view he decided to do some work and carried a couple of loads of mud onto the dam. It must have been very low tide because when this beaver came home he had to walk up the creek in places. (:30)

Someone had definitely eaten their wheaties that morning because after this roaming beaver returned s/he went straight to work, lifting mud onto the dam and poking branches into better places. Swirls of mud hovered at the banks and scooping locations, and often only the wrinkle of water or a fizz of bubbles told you where the beaver would emerge next. There were several rounds of this;

And equal potions of this

Then working beaver dove into the bank hole by the footbridge. I noticed Reed was in the water, watching this subtly. Then working beaver re-emerged and swam towards Reed, and they circled about in an exchange that I was so happy to see I didn’t attempt to film. (I haven’t seen beavers interact since…March?) Then working beaver and Reed retired to the bank lodge. And I cheerfully came home.

Yesterday we picked up this years tshirts, designed by Amelia Hunter and lovingly printed by Courtyard Customs. I think you’re really going to like them. If you can’t come next saturday to get your own, you can always order one off zazzle and add your own name or logo!

beaver Festival IV by hdshrnkr

It’s beginning to look alot like…

heidi08 Festival July 26, 2011

This weekend’s press release generates two stories so far….

Beaver Festival IV Promises Dam Good Time!

Q: Why did Martinez keep the beavers?

A: Because they were Worth A Dam!

Actually the answer is a little more complicated and involves a civic uprising rivaling the last 10 minutes of It’s a Wonderful Life. You’re sure to learn the whole story if you join the Festivities on August 6th in downtown Martinez. In addition to live music and unique wildlife displays, this free festival will offer a “paint your own tail” activity complete with a contest/fashion show at 1:30 awarding prizes for the most creative entries.

“At our first festival we did a paper tail art project that was enormously popular” Said the group’s founder Heidi Perryman. “Later we met children who had carefully kept that artwork and wore it religiously when visiting the beaver dams. It was incredible!” She said, noting that this year volunteers pre-cut 500 leatherette tails that children can uniquely paint. “They’ll be a much better keepsake”.

If there aren’t any artists in your family, you can take a tour of the beaver habitat and invest your time at the silent auction – where you can bid on generous donations from Folkmanis, Safari West, or Beaver Creek Vineyards. While supplies last children can “earn” charms for a keystone species charm bracelet by explaining how beavers improve the environment for other wildlife. No one will want to miss out, as this year the charms, paid for by Martinez Kiwanis, were hand designed by Wild Bryde Jewelry.

Past Festivals helped Worth A Dam give a beaver-management grant to fellow beaver supporters in Tahoe, who went on to save beavers in their own city as well as nearby Truckee. Perryman travelled to Oregon to present at the State of the Beaver Conference and connected with the Grand Canyon Land Trust who will be sending beaver representatives to learn about starting a festival of their own!

2011 has been an eventful year for the Martinez beavers, with hard storms washing out their dams and lodge, separating the family for several months. You will have to come in person to learn how the 2010 kits managed on their own and find out about this summer’s surprising family reunion.

Fingers crossed we’ll get some more!

A Remarkable Entrance

heidi08 Beavers June 6, 2011

Click on the Keyhole to be taken to the Scottish National Heritage Webpage, home of the famed beaver trial. This is such a fun, interactive and educational beaver introduction I almost feel jealous, although I can’t imagine our well-appreciated charm bracelet activity didn’t spark some ideas along the way. Make sure you pay attention as you go through the entrance though, because it only does it the first time you visit. You will have to delete your temporary files to get it to play again. It’s a nice introduction to a pretty complex concept, well done team beaver! I wish they specifically mentioned salmon, since that’s what all their anglers are afraid of – maybe showed a picture of one leaping over a dam – but that’s just me.

Excellent beaver festival IV planning meeting last night. This year may well be the best ever, which is good because rumor is that beaver experts from at least three states are planning to visit and get ideas for how to launch a festival of their very own in their communities.

Gifts

heidi08 Uncategorized January 14, 2011

So if you’re like me, (and let’s hope you aren’t) there are people in your life that have started buying you ‘beaver gifts’ for they holidays. Maybe you have a beaver doorknocker or a beaver christmas ornament. And some of these gifts are remarkably charmless and some of them make you say OHHHHHHHH outloud for a rather long time. Generally you know which friend is going to buy you which kind of gift ahead of time, and are able to brace yourself appropriately. I’m sure its the same if you protect owls or dolphins or coral reefs. You end up with a rather large collection of items related to your passion. Well a very skilled beaver-gifting friend found me a copy of this for Christmas and it was definitely an OHHHHH.

It was so delightful that I thought I’d track down the author and see if I could get a few copies donated for the Festival. Even my fairly prodigious sleuthing skills couldn’t track Mr. Silver down so I thought I’d pursue the illustrator. Patricia Wynne is a delightful artist who does scientific/natural artwork for a host of projects and topics. She has drawn beavers, birds, sea life, wolves, moose and crustations. She’s been featured in Scientific American the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She has far, far more important things to worry about than a beaver book that was published 15 years ago. But I thought, why not ask if she has a copy or two to donate? It can’t hurt.

She wrote back immediately and said “I don’t even have a copy anymore!” but then “Let me look through my artwork for the book and see what I have. Then I could donate original art for the auction and it would probably help you more.” Wow. That was a pretty generous answer, to a question I hadn’t even thought to ask. I didn’t know if she would find anything or if I’d ever hear from her again but a few days later she wrote back with four lovely pictures attached. “I found these, pick one and I’ll frame it and send it to you.”

Talk about a kid in a candy shop! (Or a beaver in a willow grove!) My eyes were drawn immediately to a very adorable image of kits sleeping together, but I settled on a big ‘beaver action’ image with chewing and beavers at the lodge. I thanked her profusely and sent off my ‘Sophie’s choice”.

Pop up book beavers — Pop-up Book Beavers: Patricia Wynne

After voting, I realized with a pang that the sleeping kits had been THREE cuddling kits with no mom. Three Kits with NO MOM!!! Like our three kits who were orphaned this year when Mother beaver died. The image was a small painting and wouldn’t fetch as much at auction, but I knew it was the one that I should have chosen. It was our story. It was part of the Epic Tail. I wrote back in a panic, “can I change my vote?”. I told her about mother beaver dying and how she had broken her tooth and lost so much weight and then managed to have three kits anyway and groomed them even when she couldn’t groom herself.

“I will send them both” said Patricia. And she did.