Upon the anniversary of mom’s death, Worth A Dam members gathered at the bridges in the evening to mark the occasion and see what might transpire. We met a big family with young children who had tried to come with kayaks the night before to watch the beavers from the water. I explained that our creek is way too small for the beavers to emerge when 5 floating boat-shadows are bobbing in the water, and suggested they watch with us from the bridge.
While we were waiting we saw two muskrats, one barely bigger than a hamster ducking in the shadows and a bolder one the size of a guinea pig swimming about the pond. At eight o’clock, this fellow showed up on the bank by the primary. He climbed out onto the land and gave us all a good view of how truly healthy he is growing up to be, striking this pose for effect.
On Farmer’s Market days there is a very generous/indulgent homeless man that insists on leaving strawberries for the beavers at the dam. This little fellow downed one after another until his lips and nose were bright red. This photo is actually the least painted one Cheryl too that night!
All that berry-juice must have went straight to his head because after he was done he paddled about in the water and bobbed out of sight right about where the pipe to Skip’s flow device ends. The roundfence (or cage looking thing) was pulled off in the flooding and is now sitting in the corp yard. The pipe for the Castor Master has been open and exposed for three months, and one of the best clues we have that Dad or GQ aren’t in residence is the fact that it still spouts water and hasn’t been plugged like a leak to stop the pond from draining. Beavers can feel suction and the pull of water in their dams so they are very sensitive to things that drain water away. Well, apparently older beavers are very sensitive to it, because up until that moment our kits had been completely oblivious to it.
Up until that moment, that is. At 8:30 in the evening, on the anniversary of mom’s death, we suddenly noticed lots and lots of this coming from the end of Skip’s flow device.
