Spring Farm Cares is a nonprofit animal sanctuary in New York. They are good friends with Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife and produce some of their films. They arranged to have beavers on their land. In fact in May there was a very nice spread in UTICAOD about the beavers, how they arrived and the naturalist who has been watching them ever since, Matt Perry. Yesterday I found this from Matt at their blog
Disaster at the Beaver Pond
Somewhere between last Wednesday night and Thursday morning, disaster struck our main beaver pond when a 20 foot section of its dam collapsed. The Pond drained very rapidly and the resulting torrent of water destroyed other canals, ponds and dams located downstream. Such a rapid draining of a pond containing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water has the potential of killing beavers, but so far I have found no evidence that any of the colony were killed. I still have yet to account for all of the members of the colony –but that’s not too unusual even in normal circumstances.
Boy, have we been there! Matt, our hearts go out to your beavers, who will work hard to keep their family safe. Go read the entire article to see the temporary accommodations they’ve employed and the work put in to getting things back on track. In the meantime you will see an unbelievable bird show as everyone moves in to feast on the exposed fish and mud! Washouts happen, and beavers tend to recovery their wits far more quickly than people. I’m sure Matt is in for a treat as he watches them reapply their skills. I was comforted to read he brought them poplar because a job big that calls for a little caloric treat to keep the spirits up! At least, that’s what our beavers seem to think!
Kingfisher Update:
It turns out the the female Kingfisher I brought in yesterday from the beaver dam had a broken mandible, so thank you Moses and Robert for getting her because you gave her a chance at life. The jaw has been splinted and she is being kept calm and quiet in a back area, with staff only handling. She is apparently doing well for such a ‘high stress’ bird. They will keep feeding her by hand 4 times a day and hope to keep her weight up. When we hear more I’ll keep you posted.
From the weird coincidences department I have to mention in passing that a broken jaw on a Kingfisher is not at all different from a broken incisor on a beaver, and she was rescued from the same place, by pretty much the same people, transported in the same Subaru, on almost exactly the SAME day as mom beaver.
Just sayin’
