If there's no water in it, is it still a stream?

So, I had a chance to visit the camera yesterday.

 I thought I had it set up with a nice view through some relatively open woods. I expected to get quite a few interesting pictures.


Well....







I was wrong.

I got a nice deer, a fox, and just a few squirrels.
This may be a camera placement problem, or perhaps seasonal change in behavior. Perhaps the animals are moving downhill for some reason?

The camera is still in the same area, but oriented differently. The next visit may reveal some answers.















Meanwhile, back at the dam....

The beaver has certainly been at work.

the dam. 1 Oct 2013.

You can see that the dam is larger than it was when I last saw it. And in the photographs below, what I think is the first of its winter food cache, secreted in the new pond.

And another fascinating observation. You can see that there is water in Minebank run where the beaver dam is. About 500 yards downstream from that, where second dam was destroyed completely by flooding, there is no water in the channel.

Another 400 yards downstream there's water again. Go figure.

I've read some reports about the restoration efforts on Minebank Run and haven't found any references to springs feeding the stream. That seems a likely explanation, though. I know that there are springs in the area.


More later.