Beavers on the Move

What you would have seen when walking in from the road.

Last October the beaver from the bog had some sort of population explosion. The kids had to move out and make their own house. They chose to move across the road to our side. There is a huge culvert that drains water from a low lying grove of tamarack and apple trees. It is less than a quarter mile from the house. John noticed in October that the area was flooded. Deeply flooded. So he went to check it out. That's when he found the new beaver dam across the culvert. The new pond was about four feet deep and filling quickly. We would have a huge problem if there was a heavy rain or if the future finished dam broke. It could wash out our driveway, the culvert and the road..

John manually clears out the dam from the culvert.
He is standing on top of the new dam.
Note those 6 foot tall fence posts marking the culvert.

The new beaver pond.

John spent a lot of time and effort in clearing the dam from the culvert. He did it one Sunday morning and for a few weeks after that, once a week, because the beaver kept repairing the damage. The beaver seemed to give up at that point and did not rebuild.

But after nearly six weeks of quiet, they rebuilt the dam. This time, they built it deep inside the culvert, under the road, where neither John nor his tractor could reach it. John then called the town road agent, Clem, who had installed our culvert. Clem sent the town road crew that very day. They used the town's huge backhoe and hauled out the new, heavily fortified dam. Then they installed a heavy road grate to prevent the beaver from ever entering the culvert again.

The new heavy grate blocking the culvert. Note those same fence posts from above.

Below are some photographs of the damage in the same area. We returned on a hike in December to see what was going on. The damage was quite extensive. The area was trashed (in a nice, beaver sort of way):

This is what that new beaver pond looks like now. It is drained.

The remains of a lodge that was being built behind the dam.

Many trees were only partially cut or were being considered for cutting. This tree will die.

The beaver may have been discouraged. They may even have despaired. But they were never threatened. After the town blocked the culvert, they continued to cut down trees on both sides of the road and built a new lodge where it should have been built: in the beaver bog. This is the fourth lodge across the road now. It has new canals and trails, and new log slides going into the water. I'm glad the trees, such as they were, are gone, because now the view of the bog is clearer.

The new lodge. Where it should be.

The funniest tale of these beaver has not yet been told. In January, I went for my monthly hair appointment and heard the strangest story from my hairdresser, who frequently drives by on her way into town. She was driving by one day about noon and saw by the side of the road a big beaver. He was waiting for her to drive by, looking both ways before he crossed. And what did he have in his mouth? A reflective road side marker that marks the culvert so that the town road crew does not damage it with the plows. The beaver had cut it down and was taking it home to decorate his lodge!

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Dam 5

The beaver dam a half mile from home.

This beaver dam used to be a mill. The old millhouse is still there, as is the human dam. The beaver no maintain the dam. I walked over there in April to get photographs of spring and to see how the beaver and the bog were doing. An lodge that was in the side of the pond was destroyed, perhaps by fisher cats. There were new trees chewed and down. But otherwise, all was calm and quiet as before. I'm thinking I should drop by the town clerk office and see exactly what this area is called. I call it Dam 5 because it is the fifth dam on May Pond Brook that Amelia and I counted when we hiked the brook years ago. Dam 4 is across the road from the house and Dams 1 through 3 are upstream of Stone Flume.

Our home, 1/2 mile away, as seen from the dam.

Shortly after I took the photo of the goldenrod gall (above), I found some fresh bear scat. I finished up the photos and left soon thereafter, making sure I stayed in wide open spaces with lots of room to run to the road.

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Book Review: The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich

On April 22, 2007, I noticed a pair of nesting geese on the beaver ponds across the road. I was disappointed that they choose to nest here because I had been told they were aggressive and would make the ponds their own, chasing out other water fowl. That seemed to be confirmed when I saw that no mallards, wood ducks or mergansers nested here as they had before. I decided that I may as well take advantage of the presence of these birds and photograph their young when they hatched. These photos in this review were taken at 10x zoom.

I saw the three goslings soon after they hatched (but was never able to photograph them), but only for a day or two. The family quickly disappeared. I was concerned that they had been eaten by fox or coyote. Then in July, Wingnut and I went to Crystal Lake State Park to swim and there was my goose family. They had integrated into life at the park and were eating and pooping very well. The goslings were nearly as big as the parents.

The park staff was asking people to not feed the geese, but were ignored. A ranger told me that they had to clean fifty pounds of geese droppings a day and it was becoming tiresome. It was impossible to walk barefoot as we usually do. But the geese were pleasant, not aggressive, and enjoyable to observe, especially since I knew that they were "mine."

I have always wondered how the family got to Crystal Lake, a mile down the road and over at least one beaver dam and a huge falls at the Barton Waterworks. Why did they leave? Was the water at the beaver pond polluted in some way? Did the food supply in the ponds suddenly become scarce? Did the goslings walk or were they carried?

Heinrich wrote the amazingly personal and engaging book, The Geese of Beaver Bog, about his observations of a group of geese from 1997 - 2003. Heinrich is a professor of biology at the University of Vermont. I have read his book Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (after observing ravens rolling in fresh snow) and have heard him talk about bees and other topics on Vermont Public Radio and National Public Radio.

This book is a wonderful resource for me. Heinrich's experiences with his geese and beaver pond are remarkably similar to mine. We are both in Vermont, so the plants and animals are the same, and the bird populations are similar. Reading this book was like sharing experiences with a friend who doesn't only know the pond, but understands the excitement and sadness that I see here. He would feel as badly as I did when a crow stole a young redwing blackbird. Or when I heard the killing of a deer one night. He would chuckle at the scene of the coyote meeting a beaver face to face on the ice.

Canadian geese are precocial: they are able to be independent after hatching. The goslings are not fed by the parents. They mimic the parent's behavior and quickly learn what wisdom they need to continue surviving. And the parents do take the goslings to other ponds and lakes after hatching. The beaver pond, with its mink, weasels, foxes and coyotes, is not safe for the youngsters. Heinrich's geese walked two miles through cow pastures to a new pond. Mine walked through the woods where there were many dangers from predators that could not be easily seen by the parents.

Geese will try to return to nest where they are born. So I will most likely be seeing geese here for some years to come. Geese pairs do not necessarily mate for life. They tend to be monogamous but life interferes with our plans: mates are killed, or are chased away. I learned about different groups of geese in North America ("races") and about their migration.

We tend to categorize animals as cute, smart, companions, pests, killers, unimportant — there is no end to how we judge which animals are worthy of living. But once we understand their complex behaviors and how they interact, we begin to identify with them and judge them worthy of living on earth with us. We are now concerned about the survival of mountain gorillas, wolves and other animals because of books and movies that personalize their lives. The Geese of Beaver Bog personalized the natural lives of geese for me. It demystified their behaviors, asked questions that I would like answered, and removed the "pest" stigma from them.

I believed geese were nuisances but now that I know them better, I will protect their right to survive in the beaver ponds. I won't be hoping that they never return. I will be re-reading this book in the spring so that I am prepared to better observe, and enjoy, the behaviors of the geese.

All of these photos will open, full-size, in a new window when clicked.

Technorati Tags: Canadian geese, Branta canadensis, Bernd Heinrich, The Geese of Beaver Bog

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And Now the Beavers

My best shot after he left my house.

I closed my now working garage doors this morning, pulled about to head out down the drive, and saw the beaver hauling a tree across the driveway. By the time I pulled out the phone and got the shot, he was across the road on his way home to the bog. A car stopped for him, thankfully, and we waved good morning to each other when the beaver was safe. 

See the forest behind the bog?
Is that too far for a beaver to walk??

I love beaver really. But they clearcut areas of my trees. One year an entire hillside was cut. I worried about erosion until I realized that all the roots were still in the ground holding the soil in place. And now I have to worry about their well-being as they cross the road. 

They had left the bog for a few years. John and I couldn't decide if they left because their population was too large for the bog or if they had cut all available and appropriate brush. Come to find out, they never truly left. There were just so few (possibly only one) that their activity was nearly invisible. There are two lodges over there at the moment. You just can't tell if they are active. The only swimmers I see have been otter, also. Not beaver.

He's taking willow.

It will be lots of fun if there are enough beaver to follow next season (or even follow this winter with this mild weather). There will be more water for the red-winged blackbirds and moose. The otters will be abundant and the geese will be safer while nesting. There will be squabbles between beaver and otter, otter and geese, and the blackbirds will argue with everybody. The herons will stay away until the blackbirds leave in early August. I'll be able to see fish jumping out of the water as they snatch bugs out of the air. The osprey and peregrine falcons will be hunting, as will fox and coyote. Bears will be in the bog enjoying the water and the drowning trees. The plant life in the bog will host more wonderful and diverse insects and the snapping turtles will return to dig nests on my land. 

None of that is possible without the beaver.

Here are my past posts about our beaver here and in New Hampshire.

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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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Morey's Pond: A Natural History Adventure

In the middle of July we hiked around Morey Pond in Andover (elevation 1329 ft (405 m)) and saw many things that taught Wingnut about natural history. I thought this post would be an opportunity for you to see how we three explore nature together. All links are either to wikipedia.org articles that you can use for more information, to other posts on my blogs, or to photos on Flickr. If you click on a photo, you will open a new page to the Morey's Pond Set I created on Flickr for this hike. From that new page you may choose to view a larger image. Our greatest source of information is John, the most learned naturalist I have ever met. When none of us know a thing, or when we want to learn more, we search the Internet. Often, we find details in my photographs that we need to investigate more, also. Each hike, bike ride or kayaking trip is full of wonder, beauty and learning.

Geography

The first three photographs are scenic views of Mount Kearsarge as seen from the pond trail. Kearsarge has a fascinating history and geology. Kearsarge is classified as a monadnock mountain and can therefore be seen from numerous places in this area.



Morey Pond (or Morey's Pond) is listed in extremely brief mentions on the web as a reservoir for Andover, NH. There is a dam at the opposite end of the remote parking area. When we were at the dam, I turned around and photographed this outlet of the pond that runs to the dam (below). Beavers are re-engineering the human dam to better serve their own needs.

PLANTS: The plant life is typical for this area.

Above: Blue fruit of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis).

These blueberries are the reason we went to Morey Pond: to see how the crop was this summer. In Vermont the blueberry farm was smaller than the acreage of wild blueberry bushes here! There are both low and high bush berries on the pond. They had just begun to ripen and we planned to return for picking. But because of construction in the house, two heat waves, grief from the cats, and other things, we never did.

Above: Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) is one of my favorite wildflowers.

Above: I haven't yet identified this mushroom (I could simply holler across the room and ask John but I haven't!).

Above: Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea)

Animal Life

Above: John and I saw this bird scat on a shoulder high branch with dead branches above it. Some carnivorous bird (but not an owl), such as a hawk or eagle, left this here while perched above waiting for prey.

Above and below: evidence of beaver (Castor canadensis). Above you see John standing while waiting for Wingnut to tie his shoe. We are near a tree that was not quite felled by beaver last winter. How do we know that they chewed it in the winter? The cut is high above the ground at just the height that the snow pack would be. A beaver can not climb a tree to cut it down and are not big enough to chew it at this height. The weathering of the cuts on the wood also tell us it was a few months ago that it was chewed. Below you see a closer shot of the tooth marks on the tree.

Above: the human dam as the beavers re-design it. I choose this shot because of the water effects that I got (after two years of trying) in the camera.

Above: halfway between the parking area and the dam is this underground beaver lodge on an outlet (or beaver canal) of the pond. I don't see too many lodges built under the bank of a stream, so this was a treat. I wanted to poke around inside it but was too nervous to try. Who knows who lived there still?

Above: a woodpecker tree. Used for food and nesting but I don't know by what species. Nobody was in residence this season. This was probably made by a pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).

Above: a Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) that I almost stepped on.

Above: A Green Frog (Rana clamitans melanota)

Morey's Pond Set

Finally, below you will find links to the blogs, photos and links of other people on Delicious, Technorati, Furl (now Diigo) and Flickr. These are excellent resources for any person interested in natural history. Often an amateur naturalist will have a clearer description or a better photo than a professionally created guide book.. Compulsive bloggers, like myself, will take the time to research what we post and to correctly tag every single post and photograph with the scientific and common names of plants and animals. I have organized my Flickr sets into collections of wildflowers, birds, insects, and more to make it easier for people to browse and perhaps identify a creature or plant from outdoors. Click here to see my collections.

Take advantage of our efforts for you and use us as a resource. We've learned a phenomenal amount about genus, species, origins of names and common misidentifications. On your next outing, take a close look around to see what you can find!

Technorati Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Del.icio.us Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Flickr Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Furl Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire
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