Once upon a time I was surprised to read that beaver change the rushes on their lodge floor every week or so. Mostly because that’s more than people did in the middle ages. But Rusty was lucky enough to come across the activity last evening at the beaver pond in Napa. I seem to remember that this is the time of year I saw it most often, obviously having babies muck up the place must make it dirty faster. When Rusty got to the pond last night he saw this:
After watching for a while he saw a beaver gathering up some of the cattails and then swimming with them into the lodge. The original changing of the guard.
Apparently in the winter months, when there are no fresh grasses or cattails they rely on
woodchips. I’m trying to imagine
why, because it can’t be comfortable. Maybe it’s like elephants covering themselves with dust and it help keeps insects away?
I’m not sure, but I know that May is an EXCELLENT time for beaver watching in the bay area. Rusty has been watching the pond spring to life. And years ago it was when I was lucky enough to see this:
(The records say it was May 3rd, nearly 5 weeks before we had ever seen a kit in the evening, so you can imagine why we were so surprised!)
