Almost 1 month ago I received an email from a 3rd grade teacher from Pleasant Hill that had been walking home in the evening from Armando’s on the Marina Vista Bridge and saw a big beaver carrying a little beaver in its mouth. She swore that she clearly saw the tail of each, and that they went downstream and into the bank on the west side above the footbridge. She wasn’t someone I had corresponded with before, and I couldn’t know how much stock to put in the story. I thanked her very much for letting me know, and asked every question I could think of. I didn’t want to write about it in case it wasn’t true, but I was hopeful.
Before that we had seen the area directly near the footbridge where ‘Reed’ lives, but nothing farther up. When we started watching for the mysterious new rumor we noticed that there definitely was a new apartment, under the cottonwood, to the right of the bank if you’re standing on the footbridge looking upstream. In fact it seemed to be kind of a ‘hub’, with the beaver coming from above the primary to check in, Dad beaver swimming in, and ‘Reed’ swimming in!
Whoever swam into the new digs, they seemed to bring something – a branch of willow, a long tule, a bunch of grasses. But we had waited nearly a month and had seen no kit. The morning we saw Dad swim in with a huge stalk of fragrant fennel our hopes were renewed. Fennel stimulates lactation. Mom always ate fennel when she was breastfeeding. Mom died two years ago now. Could there be a new mom?
We waited and waited and waited. Weeks had passed since we received the rumor. Despite the fennel, we had nearly given up hope, or thought if there had been a kit it hadn’t survived. Since we heard the story on June 4th I promised myself we wouldn’t give up hope until July 4th. Two days left. Last night Jon, myself and Moses were watching beavers on the footbridge. We saw what appeared to be Reed slipping into the water and cruising the secondary. He was so still in the water, alert and watchful it honestly seemed like he was making a decision.
Promise me that if you ever see this behavior, you’ll know somethings up. We used to see it from GQ when he was watching out for the kits. But we never had so many new parents in such a small place before. Suddenly all those tail slaps were starting to make sense. When we turned to look upstream, Jon said offhandedly ‘Oh there’s a little beaver’ and then it whined and then we knew it was a LITTLE BEAVER and then it was gone.
We argued, checked footage, and tried to verify nose size by comparing it to the leaves. It couldn’t be. Could it? Jon went to check upstream and I took a picture of Moses footage just in case we never saw it again.
Then a little peanut-shaped beaver came sauntering down stream. I was so excited I could barely click the camera in time to catch him slipping away. Looking at this footage I’d say he’s diving better than our last kits, he might be around 6 weeks old.
A new beaver kit! A healthy beaver kit! A new generation in the family! As we hooted and congratulated each other, the upstream beaver came down and popped in to the new apartment to check how things were going. Jon came back and was very angry he had missed it. Another man joined us on the bridge and spoke wistfully wishing the colony was sustainable. Wary Reed made another appearance, and this time we knew what it meant. He was followed by a floating peanut, that drifted right below us making sure everyone got a good look, and then gave a VERY impressive tail slap and dove away.
(Actually it was so energetic it was more like an ‘everything’ slap). There could be NO mistake. Our beavers are a family again. You can bet we will be there again tonight. And in the meantime enjoy this delightful report about our friend Peter Smith at Wildtrust in Kent. Doesn’t he do an amazing job? Beaver festival Kent?
