Out For A Swim

Things that bear repeating…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior June 1, 2011

beaver toes! — Yearling Beaver Working - Cheryl Reynolds

Check out this lovely photo taken yesterday morning of one of our debutantes on his way to work. The water is so clear you can actually see his toes! He did a round of mud, and pulled a clump of tules and then retired for the day. This morning at 5:30 I saw our littlest beaver demonstrate more fine behavior…

Perfect execution and form, solid entry and dismount, and very beaver-like in his performance. In both instances he looks exactly like a beaver should look and did entirely what a beaver should do. Once. I waited an hour for part two and saw nothing. Our beavers have learned the aesthetics of dam building and the intricacies of laying mud.

They just haven’t learned the value of repetition.

Take, for example, last weeks excellent mudding demonstration on the secondary dam. Just what junior needed to do. He did it very well. One might even say he did it perfectly.Once.

They all need to keep doing do it about 1000 more times. And another 1000 on the primary.

As a rule, the value of repetition in our culture is vastly underrated. We tend to look for new ways to work and new things to amuse us and we forget that sometimes we need to do just what were doing before only over and over again. Learning to walk, tie your shoe, write the letter ‘A’, color in the lines, play by the rules, list state capitals, swing a bat, and do your multiplication tables only happen because you repeat them again and again, even when they get boring and fail to hold your interest.

At a certain point the child learns that “going to work” isn’t just dressing up like your parent and doing whatever they do for five minutes. It means getting up everyday and repeating the same job over and over again regardless of whether anyone helps you or praises you, until the job is basically finished and you’re ready to start the next job. Repetition increases skill, reduces anxiety, and familiarizes individuals with the various demands of the job.

It also builds dams.

Today is the initial round for the Scripps National Spelling Bee and finals are tomorrow. None of those remarkable children would be there without massive repetition and rehearsal.

Let’s hope the beavers get ESPN.

gathering tules — Gathering tules - Once Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Coincidence

heidi08 Beavers, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Why We Care May 15, 2011

: Rainbow at secondary dam

I thought I’d risk being labeled as a crazy new-age twinkie and discuss an alarming and impossible by-product of beaver research. It seems to happen in inexplicable moments and without recognizable patterns but I’ve been noticing it more of late. It is the type of data that most scientists never report because it just makes them appear too bizarre and fanciful. But you, dear readers, already know the worst so we may as well have a candid discussion of the phenomenon.

Coincidence.

Now there are typical everyday coincidences that surprise your life such as running into your principal at the gym or finding out your old boyfriend exactly drives the same make and color of car as you do. And there are rarer personally meaningful coincidences that hum in your awareness like realizing that your locker combination is actually your mom’s date of birth or finding out that you got married in exactly the same town as your best friend from the army got divorced. These things happen. We never expect them, but we are prepared for them. They are like cosmic puns and they usually make an excellent story over a pitcher of margaritas.

But then there are beaver coincidences, random violent streaks of destiny that are so truly alarming that all the hairs on your arms keep standing up even after you’ve had to sit down. I wasn’t planning to mention this at all, bit it seems the time has come. Please be assured that my ridiculous claims are completely true, and that if I had given myself license to fabricate I would have come up with something a little more believable. Our story begins with Longfellow.

Remember a few weeks back when I was talking about how reading Enos Mills pointed me to a section in the poem Hiawatha that I hadn’t paid attention to before? It was the section on Puk-Puk-Keewis who asked to be turned into a beaver so he could hide from Hiawatha in the lodge. When I read it I planned to blog on it the following day, and was excitedly looking about for graphics. It turns out there are sadly no images of turning into a beaver on the internet(s) so I nearly despaired of having the right picture to put with the story.

Then I remembered that in my living room is a very old copy of Volume ! of the Collected Works of Longfellow. I bought it ages ago because it was such a lovely tome (and yes, tome is the right word – huge, heavy, illustrated, leather raised binding ) – that I couldn’t resist. So I thought, gosh maybe there’s a drawing of puk-puk-keewis in that copy and I can scan it and put it on the website. I used the internet to find exactly where the passage was and marched in to track it down. Mind you, the 500 page book is lying opened on a book stand I picked up at a thrift shop. We don’t really use it but every now and then we turn the pages to keep it from looking too dusty.

What exact page do you suppose that book happened to be open to?

I didn’t dare post about it at the time, as it was too much even for me to explain. We slunk around the house suspiciously for hours after that, trying to think what well-read visitor to my house might have done it on purpose and struggling not to feel like some tiny cog in massive beaver machinery. In the end I decided to take it as an affirmation that I was doing the right thing, and at the very least the universe didn’t object.

Yesterday I heard from our research buddy Rick Lanman, M.D. whose working on the historic prevalence paper. He had been buried in some dusty volumes researching the fur trade for slivers of information about the west coast when he came across this magazine article from 1840. Guess what he found? Nothing startling about beavers in the sierras but something much more unexpected.

That’s pretty small print. Let me see if I can make it bigger for you.

Look who wrote the article on the history of the fur trade 171 years ago.

What a shock to run across this article written by James H. Lanman in 1840 – wonder if he’s a direct ancestor? This is a real trip. It’s not like our surname is that common! Rick

Ah Rick, I know just how you feel. Every now and then I can almost hear this low groan as the gears shift into place and I realize we are in the grip of something important, something that seems to have a life of its own. Well, in for a penny in for a pound I say. It could be worse. At the moment we’re keen on the flat-tail of some beaver sightings in Port Costa, which could theoretically be our dispersers. I’ll keep you posted. The next coincidence we can only anticipate but certainly not imagine.

: Destiny

Dammit!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits, Video May 14, 2011

This morning one of our just-barely-yearlings came back with the typical branch at 6:00. I expected him to toss it hap-hazzardly in the direction of what was once a dam as he’s been doing, but them I noticed there was an actual DAM at the secondary and I started to pay closer attention. I didn’t know if an adult had done this during the night after despairing of JR’s abilities but I didn’t expect much from the little one. They haven’t show many ‘busy as a beaver’ qualities just yet. I have an unproven theory that GQ is near by but not residing with our three, and every now and then he dumps off a bundle of willow and does some real building in the hopes that he’ll inspire some action. Looks like he succeeded.

Bob Arnebeck told me once that beavers find work ‘irresistible’, and that when one’s doing it the others are compelled to join in. I think that it might be true that another beaver working is irresistible, but also that a single beaver can find his OWN work irresisitible! So that once a beaver does it once, mudding or carrying or pulling, they are likely to do it again. That was certainly true this morning, as this pattern happened several more times with blackberries, willow, reeds and mud before he finally picked his way back up to the primary dam to sleep for the day.

With all the new willow around I figured something must have been taken during the night. A homeless man pointed me in the direction of the nearest target, one of the willow we planted behind Bulldogs BBQ. I had thought they were all gone already but the cut trees are all coppicing like crazy and there is tons of new growth. I know our three are old enough but I can’t help but wonder proudly whether one of our ‘babies’ took this down? Sniff. They grow up so fast.

It’s supposed to rain this weekend. I swear if it floods out this little dam I will personally march down there with a sump pump, an umbrella and sandbags. I guess that’s pretty extreme. They’re beavers after all. Okay, maybe not the umbrella.

High Tide

heidi08 kits, Video May 9, 2011

This morning’s high tide made the creek look like old times. it was 50 degrees at 5:45 and less in the wind. I watched silently as this furry sea monster floated out from under the bridge. You can actually see his feet under the water. I was hoping for a long languid beaver watch but someone crossed the bridge at JUST that moment and made him swim away. Grr. Some times I wonder if our kits aren’t confused by the tides. One morning the creek is full, and they are comfortable in watery luxury, the next it’s empty and they need to build a dam ASAP, then its luxurious again .

Cheryl was able to get this picture last week, look at his beautiful beaver body under the water! I have often said that our kits get ‘wide’ before they get ‘long’. The 2010 batch is clearly no exception.

Just in case you’re still confused about telling muskrats and beavers apart, here’s a lovely comparison. This little fellow is even carrying a reed like a beaver! But look at all that tail action:

We also saw a very stealthy beaver (adult?) carrying a big branch who dove like a navy seal and wouldn’t let us watch him much. I got some video I’ll try to enlarge and see if it’s worth posting. Hmmmm…..

Let’s end with a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to some COURAGEOUS BEAVER FRIENDS who will be installing their first ever flow device today. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Look what I saw this morning!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Video April 26, 2011

This kit (four days away from being called a yearling, brace yourselves) was swimming muddily under the footbridge at 5:45 when I arrived. I thought I just saw the tail end of him but he kept right on swimming down, scouping mud, and going into the hole under the tree there. I have no idea what he was doing, but he was making a trail of mud under the water. At one point he swam to the secondary dam, and looked at it, touched the banks and then swam back.

In the meantime it seemed like an army of muskrats were on the move in every direction. One followed the beaver into his mudded hole and another clambered over the primary dam. I could not begin to explain why we seem to have no muskrats at all some months and millions the next, but this is definitely muskrat madness month, so enjoy.

After a bit more of this mudding drama the kit started to head upstream towards the primary dam. It is so shallow it riffles and this was a march. He was discouraged once by walkers on the bridge, but eventually made his way up the gravelly bed. It was terrifying to see him walk through what should be a swim, he is so vulnerable in so many ways, but lets hope it’s MOTIVATING to this little — umm — slacker.

Well, he hasn’t been completely slack. The dam does look better. More work on both sides of the pipe, although the right side is still running through with water and gaps so large a muskrat went through it. Hey guys, remember all that mud you were playing with at the footbridge? Just a suggestion but how about trying that on the sticks?

: primary dam 04-26-11

Beaver Festival review at the Parks, Recreation, Marina & Cultural Commission meeting tonight. If you’re free at 7 drop by the senior center and lend support for the fourth ever festival at the as-yet unnammed BEAVER PARK!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s way too much news this morning, but Jon’s hummingbird photo is up at the Cornell Urban bird website and facebook page, let’s praise the power companies when they get it right! I am also working on Cornell to start an “Urban beavers website”….but don’t hold your breath. I’m told they’ll blog about the relationship between beaver dams and songbirds soon!