Friends East

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, New Species June 23, 2010

A while back I stumbled onto a delightful read about the work of beavers on an attractive website called Tamia Outside. It encourages no-octane exploration of the outdoors through cycling or paddling, and had some lovely things to say about watching wildlife. Tamia and I connected around a series of intriguing photos taken by a contact of hers who thought they might be beavers at the beach. (!) This prompted her to work on an article about telling beavers and muskrat apart, and to ask permission to use my movie about the task.

Yesterday her efforts were displayed with outstanding results. I thought I’d encourage you all to go over and check out her success, which has things for all of us to learn from. She even has rare photos of beaver scat, which it took me three years to find online. She says lovely things about our website and we had 15 visitors from her site yesterday, so pay back the favor and click on the link right away! Pause while you’re there to rewatch the movie because it’s actually one of my favorites. It was my third effort ever and used windows movie maker no less (that kept shutting down and dumping things every five minutes)! I actually think the beaver whose tail slap you see in that footage was an early yearling. I don’t recognize the size or head now and I was told by someone that they saw three beavers on the bank in early 2007. I think this beaver was our very first “disperser”

Nice work Tamia, we appreciate your research and the resource. You might add this fun clip for a up close demonstration of size difference!

Mom and kit seen last night and our third arrival merited a “tweet” at the Contra Costa Times.

If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

Lewis Carrol

“I hate to say it, but I’m surprised something like this hasn’t already happened.” This, tragically, was the death by suicide of a charter boat captain hired by BP to take part in oil leak cleanup or protection efforts in the gulf.

The quote comes from Jason Bell, who worked for William Allen “Rookie” Kruse, 55, for three years as a deckhand and pilot. Kruse put a bullet [1] through his head this morning at a marina in Fort Morgan, Alabama. His boat was about to launch today and he was reportedly upset with the oil leak, the cleanup efforts and loss of income, and wondering how he would be paid for taking part in the Vessel of Opportunity program.

The newspaper related that Baldwin County Coroner Stan Vinson “said witnesses told investigators that Kruse had been upset about the loss of business caused by the closing of fishing grounds and public perceptions of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.” Perhaps ominiously, Bell said, “He wasn’t any more aggravated with the whole situation than any of the rest of us.

Kits on parade

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits June 22, 2010

We are definitely learning about the unique personalities of our three new beavers. (It is of course possible that they all act every way at different times), but, subject to some frequent revisions, we are beginning to spot some patterns.

One is tenacious in his/her pursuit of delicious treats, especially if mom is eating it. The Veruca Salt of beavers, he/she is more likely to snatch the food from mom’s paws that to go find their own. Mom completely ignores these demands and turns her back or stands up to get her breakfast out of reach. She parents these demands without any sentimentality whatsoever, but also without aggression. We kept expecting a big blowup after the millionth attempt to steal her food, but it never came. When junior’s on the warpath she will just go to another place to eat, although she never goes over the dam, where they aren’t allowed yet.

There’s definitely a smaller, more snuggly kit, who sometimes just wants to be close to mom or to nuzzle. That kit seem to enjoy “the company of beavers” and wants to be near the others no matter what they’re doing. This is the adorable star of the footage I shot on June 13th, hitching a ride on mom’s back. She parents this kit with gentleness and nurturing and will stay near while she eats or grooms. Get your cameras out when this kit approaches because it encourages adorable behavior in everyone.

Photo: FROgard Butler

I am less familiar with our third hero, but I believe this is the adventuresome “national geographic” explorer who climbs bravely out of the water onto the dam in search of food. The kit is never worried by being alone, and not after mom’s food either. S/he has places to go, things to see, crannies to overturn. This kit swam the course of the pond underwater with narry a glitch, quite an accomplishment for a 5-6 week old floating cork. S/he takes spectacular risks, and runs back to the lodge in terror when they go spectacularly wrong. Which they do regularly. His or her tumble is featured in the June 17th footage.

It is tempting to ascribe gender traits to these beavers, and say the sweet one is a girl or the brave one is a boy, but I am purposely avoiding it. Beavers are monomorphs that have no external sex characteristics whatsoever. The matriarchal structure of beaver life means that females need to be just as competent and just as skilled as their male counterparts. They disperse for greater distances and do equal ‘heavy lifting’. Several times in her careful chronicle famous beaver writer Hope Ryden ascribed gender to her subjects only to be proven wrong when visible teats were seen during nursing season. These kits won’t be here when they raise their own familes, so we will likely never know the gender of these beavers.

And that’s just fine with me. I think Brat, Baby and Explorer will serve excellently as gender ambiguous heroes.

The Longest Day…

heidi08 Uncategorized June 21, 2010

A raw deal for our nocturnal friends, but lucky for us!

National Geographic: Ker Than

The summer solstice is recognized and often celebrated in many cultures around the world, in both the past and present. The ancient Egyptians, for example, built the Great Pyramids so that the solstice sunset, when viewed from the Sphinx, sets precisely between two of the Pyramids.

The Inca of South America celebrated the summer solstice with a ceremony called Inti Raymi, which included food offerings and sacrifices of animals and maybe even people. And perhaps most famously, Stonehenge in the United Kingdom has been associated with the winter and summer solstices for about 5,000 years. Observers in the center of the standing stones can watch the summer solstice sun rise over the Heel Stone, which stands just outside Stonehenge’s stone circles.

For many of the ancients, though, the summer solstice wasn’t just an excuse to party or pray—it was essential to their well-being. Associated with agriculture, the summer solstice was a reminder that a turning point in the growing season had been reached.

“The calendar was very important—much more important than it is now,” said Ricky Patterson, an astronomer at the University of Virginia. “People wanted to know what was going to happen so that they could be ready.”

Do you know what else is really good to do on the day with the most daylight hours of 2010? Watch the Martinez Beavers of course. Since they have the shortest night in which to feed they are likely to risk coming out in the twilight hours and stick around for the morning. Sunset is 8:34. Twilight is civil 9:06. Nautical twilight 9:45. Astronomical twilight 10:30. You can bet worth a dam will be there to keep track of their pagan festivities.

There are actually three types of twilight during this time of year: civil, nautical and astronomical. Civil twilight occurs in the first half hour before sunrise or after sunset, when the sun is less than six degrees below the horizon. Nautical twilight is so named because the horizon is still visible enough for navigation (even though the sun is six to 12 degrees below the horizon.) Astronomical twilight occurs when the sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon. It’s only when the sun is a full 18 degrees below the horizon that the stars become visible.

Darragh Worland

And then of course there’s beaver twilight, when its utterly too dark to see anything and you know full well you should go home and put out the recycling but you stay out anyway because now there’s three.

If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

Lewis Carrol

And in case you need a comforting glimpse of the human response to the oil apocalypse in the gulf, check out these images from the Annual Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. Some people get it.

Stories

heidi08 Uncategorized March 5, 2011

This was my introduction to the “Close to Home” speech last week. I thought it would be good to mention because now that there are two kits visible we are hearing the whining sound again. Apparently, its persuasive effect hasn’t diminished.

The Accidental Advocate

If I had a plan for my life saving beavers surely wasn’t in it. I got involved in the beginning just because I was curious. Someone I don’t know and never saw again said ‘have you seen the beavers’ and I never had. I had never made a movie, never written an article, never spoken at up a meeting. The night the city announced the beavers would be killed I stopped by starbucks on the way home and saw two kits feeding on the bank. They make noise, did you know that? They kind of whine uh uh uh to eachother it happens when one has something the other wants, or whenever mom’s anywhere near. I heard that noise and my heart just clutched. When would I ever hear that sound again? Did the people who decided these beavers must die even now it existed? I know that was the moment I decided to become a beaver defender. I didn’t think about duration –maybe I’d give it a weekend, maybe a week. I figured the whole thing would blow over in a matter of months. Boy was I wrong.

Dinner for Two and Mum

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits June 18, 2010

How long has it been since you’ve had a side-splitting, tear-streaming, about-to-wet-your-pants laugh? Our two newbies kept us in stitches last night with their artless antics. They definitely had designs on mom’s dinner and wrestled her to get it until she had to swim out of reach. They had designs on each other’s dinner and did lots of whining to indicate their dissatisfaction with their own. They did unplanned back flips and front flips when their unsteady balance found them head over heels, as in the above video. Watch all the way to the end. You won’t regret it.

But the show stealing climax was when the kits decided to try to try and eat a buoyant food in the water. Since it was just floating on the surface, and they were just floating themselves, they had no purchase to get their teeth sunk in. This meant that they swiped at the food, fell nose over tail, and splashed hopelessly in the water. The kit would bravely right himself, shake the water out of his nose, and try again, with the same or worse results. No lion in the serengeti could have pursued his prey more diligently. Except for the fact that the prey in this case was not alive and couldn’t actually swim away. It was twenty minutes of epic national geographic footage. By the end of the tussle we were in hysterics and begging for it to stop because it hurt to laugh so hard.

Which is, just to say, I’m sure the show will repeat tonight. Plan on nine and bring a sweater. Oh, and check out our new map from beaver supporter and graphic designer Libby Corliss. Thanks Libby!