My last captured image of the beaver was on 26 November 2016.
Since then, I've observed:
The dam is gone, completely washed away
There are no new trees cut down by the beaver
There are no beaver sticks (The wood left over after a beaver eats the cambium. Because they are so bright, they are very easy to see, and evidence of recent eating in the area.)
This leads, of course to the obvious question--where did it go? I have no idea. But:
A reliable source tells me that it hasn't been trapped and moved by the County Government
No one has seen any activity nearby, indicating that it hasn't moved up or down stream
There is a new alpha predator in Cromwell Valley Park.....
Awkward segue.
Indulge me for a minute, please.
I don't think it's a surprise to any of you that parks at all levels of government are not as well funded and supported as they might be. They just don't have the political horsepower of other activities. This makes volunteers and friends groups of parks vitally important.
If you love Cromwell Valley Park as I do, and you want it to thrive, please join the Cromwell Valley Park Council. Annual membership for a family is $20.00. Twenty bucks! For a year! Peanuts! You spend more than that at Starbucks in a week! (At least some of you do....)
http://www.cromwellvalleypark.org/cvpCouncil.html
Please join. And please consider being on the Board of the Council. 11 meetings are scheduled for 2017. That's not a huge time commitment. But it gives you a chance to make a difference.
I had a chance to poke around Minebank Run the other day and observed something odd. The beaver dam has been unchanged for several weeks. This even though the beaver is still active in the area--that's easily evident from the sticks in the water left over from its eating. As well as the trees it has cut down. But for some reason it's not building a dam. Nor did I see a food cache anywhere.
I did, though capture a coyote. This is the second time I've done that. I was struck by the fact that it was in the same place that I have photographed a fox. As I understand, the coyotes will become the alpha predator in the area, and will drive down the fox population. We'll see.
Meanwhile the residents are having fun in the park. Hope you are too.
The beaver (or beavers?) is active in Minebank Run. It's hard to see in these photographs, but the dam is slightly larger. Perhaps you can see that it extends a little more on the right side of the photograph?
I've also captured two photographs and a video.
And I captured this photograph too. It sure looks to me like the fox is marking his territory on the tree the beaver cut down.
