Out For A Swim

High Tide

heidi08 Environmental, Recent Sightings June 25, 2009

Yesterday morning was a super high tide and the water level rose past the secondary dams and easily over the first. It gushed through the muskrat passage at the main dam and filled up the lodge pond with a healthy amount of water that was lovely to see. A huge log floated or was dragged downstream into the creek and dad could be seen bringing willow branches into the old lodge, where one can only assume our elusive kits are still hiding out.

Last night Cheryl thought that passage had been officially plugged, even the muskrats had to walk around the hard way. The tunnel area was obviously a mixed blessing and they weren’t sure they wanted to give it up. It was a useful way to sneak by pesky photographers, and a handy cove for sitting and munching without prying eyes. Still, it drained away their precious water and I think they were getting the idea that water is not going to be replaced any time soon. A true approach-approach beaver conflict where the scales were finally tipped.

Hmmm…I wonder what will happen next?

Flurry

heidi08 Beaver News, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Educational, Environmental, kits May 26, 2009

After the thrill of good news that we were the proud guardians of four baby beavers in Alhambra creek Once Again, there was a lot of work to be done. Linda rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and started chatting beavers with the media, which I’m sure you heard a little something about. Cheryl has been devotedly at the dam site trying to capture photos of our elusive quartet, and I have been avidly making and launching video, updating the website (In the past 24 hours we’ve had 2000 page views and web traffic from all over) and returning emails to folks who saw the story, and wanted to be involved.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds 2008

This beloved picture is from last years brood, and I just received a copy of its appearance in the teacher’s edition of the Califonia Education and the Environment Initiative, “surviving and thriving” science curriculum which will be distributed to every 1st grade teacher in the state. Looking at this picture you can see why Cheryl should be given ample opportunity to be photographing the next generation. (So if you want to help out, go have drinks at Left Bank and tip her enormously so she can have more free time!)

Some wrote to complain that beavers should be exterminated and no city should have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on sheetpile “to protect them”. ARGGGHHH!!!! I don’t even react to the beavers-are-rodents-kill-them arguments anymore, but the sheetpile mythology makes makes my teeth hurt. Lets try this once more. The sheetpile wall was not built to protect the beavers. In fact, beaver supporters took the city to court to stop it, spent a great deal of money and time to fight it, and lost. The sheetpile wall was not even built to protect the bank, because historical photographs show us that there is another sheetpile wall directly behind it.

The sheetpile wall was built to protect the city’s relationship with a very important property owner. Period. Next question. Allow me to welcome any new visitors curious about this issue by inviting you to look at this video.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=rQefxDQemaA]

In the middle of this very busy beaver drama, we are trying to get ready for Wednesday’s creek seekers express visit. Martinez is hosting 50 visitors who will arrive on Amtrak, eat lunch and tour the habitat, and then come to Armando’s for a talk on the watershed by Igor Skaredoff, and a talk on the beavers by me. I’m still madly trying to add last minute footage to the powerpoints, and make arrangements for whose picking up lunches, drinks, and reminding the city to turn off the sprinklers. i’m fairly certain I have the basic talking points down pat, but there will be media and significant environmental players in attendance, so I want to make sure my beaver pitch is tuned to its most convincing

Congratulations also to Chuck who is the winner of our “baby pool”. Along with 9 others he guessed that mom would have four kits, and his name was drawn at random. He will be getting a Worth A Dam tshirt and the envy of all his neighbors. If you’d like a tshirt of your very own, drop us a line or come see us June 7th at the REI environmental fair.

Once we just get through wednesday then we can worry about the following week, when we have tree planting, a beaver class and REI to keep us busy….

Creek Cove Hides Baby Beavers

News10.net – ‎14 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits were spotted in a downtown Martinez creek, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver advocacy group …

Four More Baby Beavers Spotted In Martinez Creek

CBS 5 – ‎15 hours ago‎

Read more in our Privacy Policy A baby beaver, like the ones found in Martinez. AP Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown …

KCBS

Four Beaver Kits Spotted in Martinez Creek

KCBS – ‎15 hours ago‎

MARTINEZ, Calif. (KCBS) — Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, …

MARTINEZ: FOUR BEAVER KITS SPOTTED IN ALHAMBRA CREEK

CBS 5 – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Martinez Beaver Family Adds 4 Fuzzy Babies

NBC Bay Area – ‎16 hours ago‎

Four new beaver kits have been spotted in Alhambra creek in downtown Martinez, bringing the colony to a total of nine beavers, a spokeswoman for the beaver …

Baby beavers born near downtown Martinez

KGO-TV – ‎16 hours ago‎

A video from a beaver advocacy group Worth A Dam shows four new kits, or baby beavers, in Alhambra Creek. That brings to the total number of beavers living …

Memorial

heidi08 Beaver News, Environmental May 23, 2009

My all time favorite memorial weekend (so far) happened a couple years ago. We were in the sierras and took a drive up to the lake and were crowded with people who had driven up from the valley with their hopeful bathing suits and floaty devices. There were boats and picnics and beach towels at the ready. All of the sudden the towering broken mountain behind the lake shook her shoulders and called in massive cloud cover. There was a patter of rain, and then it started snowing heavily.

There were squeals and swear words and some claps of snow thunder. All the floaties and the swimsuits and the boats packed up and flew down to lower elevations. We were left there in the silence, with only a chorus of very confused frogs croaking at the falling lace. The weirdly sudden freeze snatched all the fallen water into heavy crystals and soon their were giant chandelier dangles at the ends of branches. It was truly a memorial.

Not to be outdone, last night brought a flurry of beaver activity to the dams. First there were conversations with strangers who wanted to know what the “cage-like thing was” in the water (OHHHHHHHH beloved interpretive sign, whence comest thou?) and then some very familiar beaver-fan faces. One kit (yearling, I must call them yearlings, sniff) was out by 8:00 pm and had developed a new habit of taking food into the hidey-hole on the other side of the creek. By 8:30 all three of them were in proud display, and mom came from time to time to get reeds for bedding.

Our yearlings are soo much bigger now, but there is one that’s still small. Maybe 45 lbs and 35 respectively? I did get a good look at mom’s right eye, which contines to look affected. Yesterday I sent cheryl’s photos to a beaver vet tech in New York who will be passing them along to the vet. One thing she wanted to know is if it was the same eye (yes) and if any of the other beavers were affected (no). It was nice to get great views of everyone last night, feeding, wrestling, and reaching for branches, so we could check all pairs.

The very badly bitten muskrat made an appearance and snagged a charity fennel bulb from the dam. Have you seen this little guy? A huge chunk was taken out of him and has since healed. I can’t imagine it was a beaver, because whatever it was he obviously got away from, and I that must mean it was something stuck on land and he managed to pull away and dive. It’s amazing he was able to survive. Last night we all held our breath at his fennel audacity, because of course two yearlings immediately started following him. He dove into the cove and they dove after him and we listened very closely but couldn’t hear cartoon scuffle noises, so I guess he did okay and the risk was worth it.

It was a delightful almost summer beaver evening. What better way to launch memorial day weekend than a visit the beaver dam? You never know what might happen.

Martinez Beavers Accepted At Cornell…

heidi08 Environmental, In the News May 22, 2009

Well in spirit. Check out who is featuring our Heron footage two days after it was filmed? While you’re there visit their inspiring website and consider any entries you might have for the amazing nest photo contest. Everything we can do to link Beavers and Birds in people’s minds is hugely important. Thanks SO much for the help!

Heron Update

From Skip Lisle:

Great video! It’s amazing all the wildlife that uses that little habitat. Of course, any wetland is incredibly valuable ecologically, but this high-use also hints at how terribly rare similar habitats are in the greater landscape. All of these species evolved in a veritable beaver-created Garden of Eden. They “miss” these habitats; it is little wonder that when one does occur, no matter how small, it is very popular. Do California’s wildlife managers understand what a greater tolerance for beavers would mean in terms of species and ecosystem restoration? Cheers,
Skip

From Robert Leida, WTR-8 EPA

Thanks for sharing the wonderful video! Well, it is difficult to tell
for sure. The fish is very silvery and torpedo shaped so my first
thought is a small Sacramento pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis). I
didn’t notice an adipose fin (the video is blurry), but it is possible
that the fish is a steelhead smolt as they lose their parr marks when
they migrate out and steelhead would be expected to be moving downstream
to the bay at this time of year. The size fit’s a smolt as well. Are
you sure that the heron caught the fish in this pool and didn’t fly in
from somewhere else where it caught the fish?!

Rob
______________________________________
Robert A. Leidy, Ph.D.
Wetlands Regulatory Office (WTR-8)

From Pete Alexander of EBRPD

Thanks for sending the video!

I’ve looked at the video with a couple of biologists here at EBRPD.We concur that what happened to the Black Crown Night Heron was this.The heron regurgitated a 4-6 inch fish that was dead or near dead. It appears that the heron had no intention of losing the fish as it tried to grab it after it regurgitated it. Perhaps the heron already had a crop full of fish or the fish in some way was irritating the heron. But the fish appears to be dead and had no signs of life or of escaping at that point. We couldn’t determine what the species of the fish was. It was long and narrow, similar to Sacramento suckers, Sacramento Pikeminnows or possibly salmonids that are found in Alhambra Creek. Hope this helps!

Pete J. Alexander EBRPD

Two tails and a City

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Recent Sightings May 20, 2009

(With apologies to Charles Dickens, I just couldn’t resist the picture or the title.) This photo from Cheryl Reynolds is a lovely prelude of things to come. We are still squinting into the watery horizon to find sign that our new kit delivery has arrived. What will the 2009 models be like? While you’re imagining their tiny tails and mewing little voices, I’ll introduce a recent visitor.

Laura is a knitting wizard with a website called Fiber Dreams including a design/pattern page and a cheerful crafting blog that is as likely to display her amazing shawl designs as it is to talk about a strange bird in her garden. She lives in southern California but was recently up here for a visit with her mother and stopped by to see the beaver dams. Her site linked to our site and that’s how I found her. She thought she caught a glimpse of an otter in the creek and posted the picture. I explained that it was actually a very lovely picture of one of our muskrats, and invited her to come to the beaver festival and get the full tour. She was very enthusiastic, and commented on the recent sightings page as well. Go check out her gallery for mouth watering designs that your fingers will just itch to stroke, and maybe leave a polite comment about how talented she is and wouldn’t it be lovely if she would consider possibly donating the smallest doily for the raffles at the beaver festival?