Activity at Beaver Pond 5

We climbed down Willoughby Lake Road to look at the new beaver activity on pond 5 of May Brook. They have cut down trees on both sides of the brook, enlarged the dam, and even built a new lodge right on the river bank! Above you see the lodge from the side and below you see it from behind.

Here is the old mill house at the top of an abandoned human mill and cement dam that the beavers have dammed up. The water was high the weekend of April 4.

Above you see the pond above the millhouse as seen from the beaver lodge.

This photo above is of beaver teeth marks on a standing tree.
Below you see examples of trees that are no longer standing.

Above: the grove on the brook is being systematically logged by the beaver on both sides of the brook.

John found this folding ruler by the side of the new lodge. The ruler was metric. Which confirms what we all suspected: these are Canadian beaver!

Beaver Set

Technorati Tags: beaver, lodges, dams, Castor canadensis
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The Beaver Again

Do you see the head of the beaver in the pond above? He's the small brown lump between the two drowned (short) trees that look like sticks sticking out of the water. He's there with a stick to add to his lodge. Between 7 PM and 8 PM he showed up again last night. While Wingnut watched with binoculars I took these photographs. Wingnut had the same reaction as I have when I see the beaver climb up the lodge to make repairs — we jumped backwards in surprise because he is so large. He also moves very quickly so many of these photos are not framed or focused as they should be. Hopefully he will return tonight, it will not rain, and we can get some better shots. But I'm glad Wingnut saw something that very few people see.








Technorati Tags: beaver, Castor canadensis
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The Beaver Repairs the Lodge

The sun was almost down, the beaver came, and I messed up the camera settings. But I offer these poor shots of last night when the beaver was building onto or repairing his lodge. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

Above he is dragging a medium sized, water logged branch up the side. At other times it appeared that he was putting mud on the lodge. This is the lodge after he was done for the night:

You can view the lodge from other earlier times by clicking here and here.

Technorati Tags: beaver, Castor canadensis
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Camera Critters: Missed Shots

Sitting in my waking-up-stupor the other morning, I saw a beaver swimming across the nearest pond. I was so slow getting the camera set up that I saw him do a surface dive into his lodge, shown here, just as I was all set up. He dove for the black spot under the grass, under the thatch behind a dry cattail underneath and to the right of the lodge in this photo. At least I have visual proof that the lodge is inhabited!

I also missed a humming bird and an eastern bluebird this week. Although I captured this white-tailed doe in the dawn's heavy mist, the photo is just awful! I post it anyhow.

I did not take this photo of a woodchuck. It was taken last summer by my grandson, Wingnut. This morning on the way home from church I drove by the same rock formation and the woodchuck was out. It was sunning with all four legs out on both sides, totally relaxed. Until I stopped the car. It ran so quickly that I never saw it leave. Here's to better shots this coming week!

Thank you so much for visiting!
To visit more participants,

clickCamera Critters or the graphic above.

My other Camera Critters post is about swimming salamanders.

Technorati Tags: white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, beaver lodge, Castor canadensis, woodchuck, Marmota monax
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Camera Critters: Beaver

I finally got photographs of one of the beaver in the bog. As daylight increases, I should be able to get more. Beaver are visible at dawn and dusk.

Below: one of the beaver lodges.
This one is directly across from the house.

Thank you so much for visiting!
To visit more participants,

clickCamera Critters or the graphic above.

Technorati Tags: beaver, beaver lodge, Castor canadensis

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