Cheryl Reynolds – Page 4

A lively Alhambra Creek

heidi08 Environmental, pictures October 3, 2010

Beavers Create Habitat for Wildlife. Here’s the Proof.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Beavers and otters don’t love eachother, but they’re condemned to be around eachother until the end of days. Remember that the two don’t compete for food, as the otter is a carnivore and not interested in willow. Beavers sometimes ignore otters in their territory, and sometimes show them none-to-politely to the door. Otters are a sort of ‘obligate’ nester, and don’t make their own dens. They would be thrilled to use a cozy beaver lodge to raise their pups and have spent a lot of time checking out the abandoned lodge at Bertola’s. The beavers think that’s frankly not a very good idea, and on Friday both Dad and the two year old gave tail slaps to that effect. The claim that otters will sometimes eat young kits is controversial, and I don’t know that any study ever found beaver parts in an otter tummy. Either way our kits are far to plump to be in danger any more.

I don’t know how anyone could look at this picture and not conclude that lower section of Alhambra Creek, five years ago rated the least healthy part of the waterway, is now teaming with life. That otter wouldn’t be there unless several meals were calling their names. And the ‘fish of the day’ is there because of the beaver ponds.

Thanks Cheryl.

River Architecht

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, pictures September 22, 2010

2010 Kit Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Guest Blogger and watershed wizard Brock Dolman writes:

Now as to the question: “Can one logically say that beavers are wetlands engineers?” Not sure logically what part of the phrase & semantics does not work for you? Is it that how the moniker “engineer” would appear to be anthropomorphizing or deterministic in a way held only for Hominids? Hmmm….???

Definitions of engineer as found on google:
-design as an engineer; “He engineered the water supply project”
-a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems
-mastermind: plan and direct (a complex undertaking); “he masterminded the robbery”

It has been said by a number of authors that after humans no other animal is known on the Planet to modify and manipulate more of its habitat to create conditions conducive to its survival, than beaver. Countless other lifeforms, will also gratefully acknowledge this behavior of the keystone beaver. If you have ever spent time surveying and assessing the strategic modifications that intact beaver colonies perform at scale to create their world – the best word I know of to describe their skills would be engineer – a wetland engineer, a flood control engineer, a groundwater recharge engineer, a erosion control engineer, a riparian habitat expansion engineer, a salmon habitat engineer, a biodiversity keystone engineer and climate change/watershed resiliency engineer, and an inspiring engineer at mitigating nature deficit disorder! (to name a few.) I was thinking that I want to imbue the beaver with a better CV title than simply wetland engineer – maybe Environmental Services Czar? River Architect?

Ahhh! Brock, everything you write about beavers makes me feel like I’m kicking off my shoes, curling up on the couch with a favorite book and sipping something that’s almost too good to share. Thanks a million!

Sonoma Beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere September 9, 2010

VP Cheryl Reynolds took a beaver field trip and tracked down the beavers she had seen a few years back on Sonoma Creek. She found the beavers in full swing with at least three lovely dams on display. The creek is stony with very little loose soil so the dams reflect the materials available and have little mud to speak of.

This is the beaver habitat I found 2 yrs ago and haven’t been out there much. We walked the creek today and found 3 dams. I couldn’t get through to where I thought the lodge was before. this first dam is where someone was supposedly takng it apart last year. It’s the most beautiful beaver habitat I have seen. It’s really weird though, the river is all rock. the dams are a combination of rock and branches, no mud.T

Watershed friend Brock Dolman says that they wash out every winter and the beavers have to rebuild in the spring and fall. They look pretty qualified at their year round jobs.

My understanding from the Sonoma Valley folks, is that they continually have
the beavers there, but it is just that the creek is too rowdy in the winter
and always blows out their dams and they move into bank burrows for the
winter and then rebuild each spring to fall small ones like in the photo.
Some think that some may also go down to the lower marshes of Sonoma Creek
and hang out for the rough winter flows as well? Likely, all is happening?
Just got to stop the vineyard depredation permits!!

It’s fun to see stones in the dams. I just watched a National Geographic movie of beavers and saw images of them lifting and carrying stones to place in the dam. They definitely don’t get the opportunity in Alhambra Creek. Still they are spoiled for mud, and it looks like the Sonoma beavers would love some in their efforts. Its nice to see how adaptable their instincts are, proving that beaver building relies on both inherent biology and available materials and practice.

Photos By: Cheryl Reynolds

If you discover a beaver field trip of your very own, we would love to see photos! Its important to keep track of known colonies so that we can monitor a city’s response. Lets just say most cities first reaction to a beaver dam isn’t ‘wow an opportunity to restore our creek!’. They sometimes need a little civic nudge in the right direction.

(For four years.)

Every night

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 11, 2010

A sleek steady beaver swims close enough to eye the people on the shore, does some brief nuzzling of a kit. gives a beaver-back ride or brings a branch, and slowly makes his or her way over the dam for some alone time. Most nights we lose sight of the two year old somewhere around the first scrape, where sneaky swimming becomes their habit. We believe they may be scent marking near the damlet, but we can’t know for sure. I have no idea what happens if a passing beaver takes him/her up on their offer. Will they move in or move on?

We know the rule is one breeding pair per colony. So we assume dad is also leaving scent marks for potentials. If the two year old gets lucky first, evolution would argue that dad would ‘retire’, although I have never read about that happening. At least two beaver experts have mentioned the possibility that Dad might breed with the two year old, if its a female, but that’s a lot to wrap our heads around. Go read Hope Ryden’s Lily pond which has a long account about why it isn’t a genetic problem if you’re interested. Sharon Brown of BWW described a widowed father beaver that was rebuffed by a yearling with an ‘I don’t think so’ and eventually found another partner. I think if the two year old is clearly working on attracting a mate, its a pretty good indication that its a boy, and that complicated issue won’t even come up.

Cheryl took this photo on Friday night. We have taken to calling the two year-old GQ (even though we can’t know the gender) because it is always so meticulously groomed and so much sleeker than Dad. GQ is not the most gentle of parents. He’s a little gruff with the kits and awkward at times. The other night he gave one of the kits such a scolding for going over the dam that no one has dared approach it for days. When you think about it, the two year-old hasn’t been around children before. Our last yearlings had new kits in the lodge with them when they were just a year old. But since our 2009 kits died he never got practice being with youngsters until now. It’s fun to watch him learn.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

This is clearly the “Gloria Swanson Moment” for beavers….

Work, work, work!

heidi08 pictures, Recent Sightings February 23, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Cheryl caught dad in the act yesterday, working hard to bring this tree to the secondary dam. Daylight wasn’t kind to her, but Mr. Beaver was and let her see how hard it really is to get a 90 pound sapling over a twiggy muddy dam.Three other beavers were in attendance, but not much help. Ahh look at that nose. Even though our yearlings are adult sized, they don’t have noses like that! Very broad and unmistakeable. Nice to see the fam in full display.

Interestingly, this trunk was part of a fork of a tree with the woodduck box in it. Jon sand painted it to protect the ducks from having their home toppled by a toothy bandit, and stopped at exactly the point where this was chewed, which does seem to prove that sand painting works, although one could observe that it wasn’t painted quite high enough!

I would write more, about the diligence of beaver ethics, and how it could benefit our lives, but I am very jealous of Cheryl’s amazing good luck and just have to go see for myself! Come along, why don’t you?

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.

Robert Frost: The Pasture

Update: Mom seen this morning, doing what she does best. Also a yearling in the most languid of poses. Mom’s eye condition looks no worse, but is sadly no better. I’m just thankful that she is keeping a lazy schedule because there was a massive dog fight in the water at 6:45 and I was nervous she would show up in the middle. Two large hound dogs showed up from no where, biting and snarling at each other in the water right at the tunnel to the damlet by the Marina Vista bridge. An unlucky raccoon was forced to swim much farther than he might have wanted to make a getaway. I made as many scary noises as possible to get the dogs to clear out, one was hurt in the fray and wouldn’t leave until the victor vacated the area. Jon will repair the fence today and see if we can keep further canine intruders at bay.

Anyway mom was completely unperturbed, and the beavers had a calm and easy morning, which was nice to see.