A small disappointment

So, after a week I went back to check on the camera.

The tree is gone!

I was excited to note that the tree I hoped to capture images of the beaver eating was cut down, and taken away. I made a quick check of the camera and it had several files on it. Oh boy, I'm gonna see video of the beaver cutting down the tree and carrying it away!

Not so fast, buddy. You've got things to learn.  It turns out that I did have several videos of the area. These included some deer browsing and a woman walking her dog. From them I learned that the beaver cut down and removed the tree between 9:41 pm on the 3rd and 5:07 pm on the 5th. (BTW--do you have an alibi for those dates? Better get one, 

or a good lawyer.)

I would be delighted to show you those videos right here and now, but for some reason, cannot upload them in blogger. But you can see one of them here.

But in between those images there were no others. No beaver chomping, carrying, dragging, just nothing. I don't really know how I failed, but I suspect one of two problems. Either the beaver is too small to trigger the motion detector on the camera, or the motion detector was set too high, looking above the target.

"Press on Regardless" as the Royal Air Force says.

So, I scouted around and made two observations. The first is the number of trees that the beaver has cut down. I counted 25 on the west side of Minebank Run and 64 on the east. Interestingly, those on the west side were much larger, some even five or six inches diameter. Those on the east side were primarily 1.5 inches or so in diameter.

new target tree

On the east side I did notice this tree, newly cut down by the beaver. I decided to press on. So I set up the camera looking at this tree. This week I have it set to take pictures at set intervals around dawn and dusk--called a plot cam. Let's hope we get some pictures of this creature.



The next post will discuss more those 90 or so trees the beaver has cut down. Is this animal destructive, or constructive?.....