One of my favorite things about watching beavers. and there are a lot as you well know. is meeting people who are surprised to see them for the first time. The first thing they always say is ‘OMG they’re so big!!!’ Well last week a wildlife photographer in Antioch got to see it for himself. And he was so excited he wrote me and wanted to share.
There is a sorry little discharge pond adjacent to the railroad tracks. It is round and no bigger than a backyard swimming pool. Currently it is covered in a raft of soft algae. Kirker Creek runs south to north along the west boundary of the wetlands and spills into this pond especially during rains. A concrete spillway drains the water from the creek to the pond. There is sort of a rough concrete rim around the near side of the pond studded with large rocks. I was walking around the rim looking for critters or herons that sometimes frequent the creek which is overgrown with bushes and grasses. I saw a large, brown, furry animal moving around slowly in the creek. It climbed the bank and was eating grasses there. The photos were difficult because it was mostly obscured by the vegetation. At first I thought it was Nutria and then realized it was a beaver.
Gosh I’d recognize that nose anywhere! How exciting. That’s a nice adult beaver. I can just tell this is going to be good.
I was still standing on the left rim of the pond just above the spillway with my dog when suddenly the beaver bolted past us much to the surprise to the dog and launched himself through the air and completely over the spillway and did a loud belly flop on to the top of the pond. All stretched out during that leap showed how big he was.
He then cruised around then became annoyed with the paparazzi (me and my camera) and did a couple loud tail slaps so I sat down and made myself quiet and small. I had the dog right next to me and she thought it was all very strange. The beaver settled down and did a few laps around the pond, forgetting about me and the dog for 10 minutes then hauled himself out to dry off and groom himself for a while on the bank. It was all quite thrilling because in the years I’ve been going there I never once spotted a beaver. He was rather large too. Must’ve been 65 lbs. Bigger than my dog and she’s about that. The whole episode lasted 20 minutes from the creek to the pond and it was close to dark when I had to quit shooting.
A beaver that does a belly flop is a beaver that got scared of your quiet arrival and was surprised to find out he had company! How exciting! Remember beavers don’t have great eyes, and it was probably your scent that gave you away all at once when it got to him. And the dog’s. I’m glad he was close to you.
Just so you know this is definitely not a nutria. Good lord don’t even say the word nutria out loud in Antioch.
Now I’m a woman who believes in coincidence, but isn’t it remarkable that this beaver turned up in this area where he had not been seen by this photographer ever before? These wetlands are about 6 miles From big Break and about 7 miles from the Marsh Creek site where they just got evicted. Hmm, isn’t that interesting?
I actually got a little worried about the damp mark on his left side. Do we think it might be an injury?
I asked Patrick to check over his photos for anything better or larger but in the meantime we should just be VERY HAPPY that there are beavers at Dow Wetlands again. And people who share their terrific photos with us. Thanks Patrick! Let’s hope you get photos of kits soon!
