The beavers are still there, and it's a beautiful spring day

19 April 2014. The dam is in the right background.

It's a beautiful spring day.

The dam is still there, and survived the recent heavy rains intact.

While I was looking around at the dam, I noticed a large log, probably five inches diameter and five or six feet long leaning against the front of the dam. It struck me that it was too big for one of the beavers to have put it there. I thought probably a person did.



Later, at home, I checked the pictures.You'll never guess, even in a million years. Turns out that a beaver did move that log. Look closely at the sequence below, of three photographs taken only seconds apart. You'll see that the log is being moved by a beaver. The beaver itself is barely visible on the left end of the log. It's barely more than a gray shadow, but it's there.

The other animals in the park are also out and about. The bluebirds and tree swallows are starting to nest in the boxes. I believe some have laid eggs already. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy Easter.

Go outside and play. 

Gratitude

Wow, I'm knocked off my pins, thrown for a loop, and otherwise quite pleasantly surprised.

It seems that several people other than me didn't like the fact that my camera was stolen. So they passed the hat around and collected enough cash to buy me a new one.

I really am at a loss for words. Thank you very much, I am very grateful for your generosity.

So, we're back in business.

The dam. 6 April 2014.

The dam is still there, and still looking very strong.
The pond is getting active with the spring weather. I noticed several water striders and one turtle enjoying the still water of the pond. Not to mention several people.










I also noticed how clear the water is downstream of the dam. Part of the reason for that is that the dam acts as a silt fence. A silt fence installed at no expense to the taxpayers, I might add.

I took this photograph just upstream of the dam. Perhaps you can see the silt collected by the dam. You can also see tracks left by the beaver as it swam to the dam, probably to add leaves and sticks to it. The tracks run through the stream bottom from lower right to upper left.


Beaver ponds have an effect on aquatic insects because they slow down the water flow. Some insects like to live in fast water, and others on slow water. (http://www.ecology.info/beaver-invertebrates.htm) So, I anticipate that a stream like Minebank Run which is primarily fast water will see a wider variety of insects with the dam than without.

It's a beautiful day.

Go outside and play.

Bad news

Someone has stolen my camera.

There are of course, pictures of the thief or thieves in action. I can only hope that they will be sent to the police.

Anybody know how to do that crowdfunding thing.......

The dam bigger than ever, and interesting raccoon behavior

The dam. 23 March 2014

It's hard to tell from this photograph, but the dam is longer, and I think a little higher than it has ever been. Some water had been flowing around the dam on the the east side. The dam is now about 10 feet longer in that direction, and almost rises over the bank.

The dam on the west side is also longer, but not as dramatically as on the other side. The water level also seemed higher than I recall. That may have something to do with spring ice melt.

Another view of the dam. 23 March 2014.

The beavers also built up the entrance to their den. There had always been some sticks around it, but only a very few. Now there is a real structure, and the hole in the stream bank is completely covered. I wonder if that has something to do with preparation for birth. But then again, I may be anthropomorphizing.

Most sources say that we can expect to see the kits born in May or June.





Meanwhile, as you can see below, they are still active, and still cutting trees, eating, and building their dam.

In several of the videos, raccoons appeared, Including a video of two raccoons together. As you may know, raccoons eat almost everything they can get their paws on. They eat insects, worms, fish, crayfish, nuts and bird eggs, among other things. Their territory size varies, but in rich habitat such as Cromwell Valley Park seems to be about 2/10th of an acres.  While looking up some information about raccoons, I ran across a great explanation of their behavior. One researcher observed that "typically you'll find 10 to 15 percent who will do the opposite" of predicted behavior. I guess those animals didn't read the manual.

Get outside and play.

More later.

The dam was breached, the dam was repaired, and the camera missed it all

The dam. 23 February 2014.

As you can see in this photograph, melting snow combined with some rain, overwhelmed and breached the dam.

I thought it might be fun to see if I could capture some videos of the beavers repairing the breach. So, I put the camera in a location overlooking the breach and aimed it in such a way that I thought would do exactly that. I was exactly wrong.

Apparently the beavers were able to swim up to and repair the breach without triggering the motion detector on the camera.

The dam. 9 March 2014.

Four videos are posted below.

The first two are fun to watch. You'll see that a groundhog likes to use the dam as a bridge to cross Minebank Run. With the dam intact, that's one happy groundhog. With the dam breached it's not such a happy critter.

The third video shows one of our beaver pair swimming about in the pond.

The fourth shows a pair of ducks swimming about in the beaver pond.

Which reminds me of a fact revealed by a study in Yellowstone National Park.

"Increases in beaver populations have strong implications for riparian hydrology and biodiversity –Wyoming streams with beaver ponds have been found to have 75 times more abundant waterfowl than those without."
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/dec/yellowstone-transformed-15-years-after-return-wolves

More later.

A breach in the dam

The dam. 19 Feb 2014.

I checked the dam twice recently. Once on the 19th, and again today. I'm not surprised, but a little sad, to say that the dam has breached from the heavy snow melt and rain combination.

You can see in the second photograph that the middle section of the dam has breached.

I'll keep an eye out to see how long it takes to repair the damage.

The dam. 23 Feb 2014.

A field of stumps regenerating.

On the 19th, I happened to walk around the old dam site from 2011. That particular dam has been washed out and abandoned some time ago. I was on the right bank of the run, where many trees had been cut down and presumably killed by the beavers. 

Happy news. 

As you can see in these two photographs, most of the trees chose not to die, but rather to regenerate.  You can find an interesting article about the process here: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/06/adirondack-forestry-stump-sprouting.html.

Stump sprouts.

Meanwhile, a couple videos of the ubiquitous fox and also a raccoon. Hope you enjoy them.

More later.

I saw a Bluebird today

I checked the dam yesterday and noticed something interesting.

A section of the dam had failed. The bank on the left side of the stream failed. It was incised already, and seems to have failed. the failure point was just downstream from the dam, and caused about seven feet of the dam to collapse.

The beavers have wasted no time in repairing the dam. You can see the repaired section in the foreground of this picture. The sticks are newer and less weathered. You might also see that there are no leaves stuck in between the sticks as there are in the older section of the dam.  Those leaves are an important part of the benefits of beaver dams. They provide food for insects. And those insects provide food for trout and other fish. And trout provide sport and food for humans. In one study, winter survival rates for salmon and trout was 2 or 3 times greater in streams with beaver dams than streams without beaver dams. (www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress.)

Here you can see an earlier video of a beaver carrying leaves to the dam.

I've never been successful in capturing the beavers working on the dam. But I'm trying again. I hope to get some video of the dam repairs. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects are active around the dam: beaver, deer, fox, squirrels, people, pet dogs, and raccoon.

And an Eastern bluebird. That's a nice reminder that spring is coming.

Soon the bluebird boxes in the park will be humming with activity.

More later.