Are we going to have baby beavers soon?

I visited the beaver pond yesterday. I was struck by the appearance of the dam--it almost appears to have been abandoned. A portion of it is gone and the rest looks somewhat bedraggled. 

the dam. 8 May 2013 at 17:53.

A look at the two photographs and the chart below may help to explain that. We had some rain in the past week, and both of my visits were soon after that rain. Look at that water flow chart. A little bit of rain falls and, whammo, the water level rises in a straight line. That kind of fast and furious urban water flow is damaging to the beaver dam. 

USGS stream flow data.

Meanwhile, I observed a couple other things. One is that our rodent friends are not cutting down trees. Three explanations occur to me to explain this. One is that the beavers just aren't worried much about the dam this time of year--that they will devote more time to it as fall approaches. Another is that the beavers' diet has switched to grassy plants, rather than wood cambium. A third possible explanation is that the beavers are getting ready for birthing. (Boy, I can't believe I just typed that. It feels like anthropomorphism to me. Maybe I'll re-write this paragraph later.)

the dam. 11 May 2013 at 20:08

Anyway, trees are not being cut down. The beavers are still there. And other animals are stopping by.

Enjoy the pictures.

More later.

Now how do I write the gender pronouns? (I need an editor)

I checked the dam again yesterday.

the dam. 27 April 2013.

As you can see, all is well.















And we have photo confirmation of our quick visual observation of last week. As you can see, there are indeed two of these delightful rodents in our pond.

count 'em--there's two!

I presume that this means there will soon be more. Beavers are monogamous. They usually give birth to 2 to 4 young each spring. Birthing occurs typically in April or May. That's something to look forward to, isn't it?

I have noticed something else that caught my attention in the last couple visits to the beaver pond. There are fewer sticks left over from the beaver eating the cambium than there were in the winter. I think this means that they have switched to eating more green plants and less wood cambium. 

27 April 2013.

Also, the big tree is nowhere near being eaten through. I'll let you know if they ever do get it down.

Below are some pictures of the comings and goings at the pond recently.

More later.

Live action--what fun. And video to boot.

the dam and its creator. 13 April 2014.

Last night my splendid wife and I decided to take a quick walk through the park, and to look at the camera. I was especially anxious to see how much damage was done to the pond by the recent rains.
As we approached the beaver pond, we both noticed water rippling.

Boy howdy, did we time it right.

The beaver was out and active. (Can you see it it the picture above placing a stick on the dam?) Too cool.

We spent several minutes watching. My wife actually saw 2 beavers. She saw the second only briefly, near the dam. The one that stayed in view placed two sticks on the dam, and some mud and leaves. We also saw it leave the pond and spend a couple minutes near the large tree that it still hasn't finished eating through. It appeared to be eating grass.
















So, I leave you with 2 videos of the beaver in it's pond.

More later.

A dozen good things beaver ponds do for the environment

the dam. 9 April 2013.

I checked the beaver today, and discovered that the tree is still standing.

 I decided to keep the camera looking at the tree, as I think it might be fun to capture its fall on camera.
(Wish me luck with that, please.)

As you can see, the beaver is still working on the tree.




While poking around the area, I noticed some other interesting things. From an earlier entry, you may recall that the beaver cut down a tree, but that the tree got hung up in vines and didn't fall to the ground. Today, I noticed that our rodent friend has cut through the vine, allowing the tree to drop to the ground.

the tree, on the ground and limbed by the  beaver.

The vine the beaver cut to free the tree.

How's that for problem solving?

I also noticed an art installation in Minebank Run. It is unsigned.

Courtesy of North Carolina State University, I leave you with a list of Beaver Pond Benefits

Active Ponds

1. Improve downstream water quality
2. Provide watering holes for agricultural and wildlife needs
3. Supply important breeding areas for amphibians and fish
4. Provide diverse wetland habitats
5. Furnish feeding, brood rearing and resting areas for waterfowl
6. Encourage many reptile, bat amphibian, fish and bird species

Abandoned Ponds

1. Furnish snags for cavity-nesters and insectivores
2. Fallen logs supply cover for reptiles and amphibians
3. Provide essential edges and forest openings
4. Supply diverse moist-soil habitats within bottomland forests
5. Create productive bottomland forests
6. Provide foraging and nesting areas for bats, songbirds, owls, and hawks

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/forestry/pdf/www/www23.pdf

More later.

92 species of birds can't all be wrong

30 March 2013.

I checked on the camera today, and am delighted to see that the beaver is still active.

 It is still chomping on the big tree that it has been chomping on for a couple weeks.  This is , by far, the biggest tree in Cromwell Valley Park that it has  cut down or tried to cut down.  I don't know if that is significant or not. One source I checked says that beavers only cut down large tree when smaller ones are unavailable.  That does not seem to be the case here. 

the old dam. 30 March 2013.

I also took a walk down to the first dam and den that the beaver built. You may recall that a flood at the

end of January, forced the beaver to look elsewhere for a home. The remnants of the dam are still visible, but with a large hole eroded in the center. Similarly, the den is still visible, but the hole made by an animal has eroded, and is filled with sticks.

the old den, probably home to a new animal. 30 March 2013.

the collapsed secondary entrance hole. 30 March 2013.

So, we all know that beavers destroy a lot of trees. But they do more than destroy. They create as well.
Bernd Heinrich, studying geese living in a beaver pond, found 92 species of birds in the pond. He counted 28 of them using the beaver-created habitat for breeding. (The Geese of Beaver Bog, Bernd Heinrich) His list is below:

1. Horned grebe
2. Pie-billed grebe
3. American Bittern
4. Great Blue Heron
5. Canada Goose (breeds in pond)
6. Mallard (breeds in pond)
7. American black duck
8. Green-winged teal
9. Blue-winged teal
10. Wood duck
11. Ring-necked duck
12. Lesser scaup
13. Common goldeneye
14. Bufflehead
15. Common merganser
16. Hooded-merganser
17. Virginia rail (breeds in pond)
18. Killdeer
19. Solitary sandpiper
20. Spotted sandpiper
21. Common snipe (breeds in pond)
22. American woodcock (breeds in pond)
23. Bald eagle
24. Northern harrier
25. Sharp-shinned hawk
26. Broad-winged hawk
27. Osprey
28. Ruffed grouse
29. Wild turkey
30. Mourning dove (breeds in pond)
31. Black-billed cuckoo (breeds in pond)
32. Barred owl
33. Ruby-throated hummingbird
34. Belted kingfisher
35. Northern flicker
36. Yellow-bellied sapsucker
37. Downy woodpecker
38. Hairy woodpecker
39. Pileated woodpecker
40. Eastern kingbird (breeds in pond)
41. Olive-sided flycatcher
42. Eastern Phoebe
43. Least flycatcher
44. Willow flycatcher
45. Alder flycatcher
46. Tree swallow
47. Bank swallow
48. Barn swallow
49. Blue jay (breeds in pond)
50. American crow
51. Common raven
52. Tufted titmouse
53. Black-capped chickadee (breeds in pond)
54. Winter wren
55. Golden-crowned Kinglet
56. Ruby-crowned kinglet
57. Blue-gray gnatcatcher
58. American Robin (breeds in pond)
59. Veery (breeds in pond)
60. Northern shrike
61. Gray catbird (breeds in pond)
62. Bohemian waxwing
63. Cedar waxwing (breeds in pond)
64. Red-eyed vireo
65. Warbling vireo
66. Tennessee warbler
67. Nashville warbler
68. Chestnut-sided warbler (breeds in pond)
69. Yellow-rumped warbler
70. Palm warbler
71. Yellow warbler (breeds in pond)
72. Northern waterthrush (breeds in pond)
73. Common yellowthroat (breeds in pond)
74. American redstart (breeds in pond)
75. Rose-breasted grosbeak breeds in pond)
76. Northern cardinal (breeds in pond)
77. Song sparrow (breeds in pond)
78. American tree sparrow
79. Dark-eyed junco
80. White-throated sparrow
81. White-crowned sparrow
82. Fox sparrow
83. Swamp sparrow (breeds in pond)
84. Red-winged blackbird (breeds in pond)
85. Brown-headed cowbird (breeds in pond)
86. Common grackle (breeds in pond)
87. Northern oriole (breeds in pond)
88. American goldfinch (breeds in pond)
89. Pine grosbeak
90. Common redpoll
91. Purple finch
92. Evening grosbeak

 More later.

squirrels, deer, rabbits, fox, and a beaver. Oh My!

It's spring break so I had the pleasure of my son's company this week. We had a great week, and a very successful one. So let's not waste a lot of time with words. Let's just enjoy the results.

Eureka! Let's enjoy this as long as it lasts.

I checked the camera yesterday afternoon, and again this afternoon. I am glad to report that I've finally caught or favorite rodent on the camera. What fun.

I also observed an interesting phenomenon. 

I saw a tree nearly cut down by the beaver.

When I looked closer, though, I realized that the tree was ready to fall. Sadly for our rodent friend, it was hung up in branches of other trees, so couldn't fall. All that work and no food. Drats.

One last note. While out today I met a man who is attempting to trap the beaver, apparently at the request of the Park Manager. He said that he is going to relocate the beaver if he succeeds in catching it.

More later.