September 1 we went to the land early to see how the garden and everything else managed the 3 1/2 inches of rain we got from the remnants of hurricane Katrina. As we drove in a sapling blocked the road, not knocked down by yesterday's winds, but cut down by a beaver. I moved it to the side of the road where the beaver pond is.
They had crossed the road to cut it. In general there was no damage to crops or trees on our land. Lone oaks standing in people's yards did lose some major branches. As for the water levels, the two little pools below the beaver pond are half full;
the pools above the beaver pond are full and water is flowing into the pond.
The north canal connecting the two parts of the pond is back in
business.
Perhaps the flow of water coming into the pond from the direction of the road inspired a beaver to go that way looking for poplar. However, we got an indication that searching for poplars predates the rain. Leslie found some freshly cut poplars over the ridge toward the cabin and a trail to the work from the southwest end of the beaver pond. The other night I had heard beaver humming from that direction. The Third Pond is full again with water flowing out; and there is a big rush of water coming out of the Deep Pond. Because of the gaps in its dam, the flood is less perceptible, say just six inches of water along the edges covering the old shore instead of the watermilfoil.
The turtlehead flowers down there are coming along nicely
and I nibbled another half ripe apple. I also got up to the Hemlock Cathedral, though Grouse Alley was a bit flooded. The ditches up there have a bit of water and whiring mosquitoes too.
No mushrooms to be seen. I saw a porcupine half way up a tree hugging a large branch. With cooler temperatures and a nice wind, I started sawing ironwood logs again, and collecting them up at the beaver pond. By and large, the beavers didn't use much of the ironwoods they cut. With one of the first they cut, they did take a good bit of the crown and trim branches along the trunk, but they didn't strip any bark or segment logs along the trunk. Laying next to that tree was an ironwood they cut later, and not a branch was taken out of the crown.
Back home the brisk wind whipped up enough waves so that I couldn't resist riding them in the kayak. As I turned to catch the waves, I saw a cormorant with its head briefly up between the swells. I do like that bird. And as I drifted in, an osprey high in a tree on the lee side of Goose Island called to me.
September 2 headed out at 9 am to find the otters, on a breezy, sunny day, warming up fast, and still a bit humid from all the rain. At the small South Bay causeway, I saw some fresh soft and liquid black otter scats
on a rock just off the trail and just up from the water.
There was also the look of a trail into the vegetation heading up to the Big Pond. There were no scats at the old latrines. Well, this perked me up. I scanned the Second Swamp Pond, and flushed a heron and three wood ducks, but no sign of otters. There are no latrines at the southwest end of the pond so there was nothing to check to see if otters had been there. I angled up to the Lost Swamp Pond so I came down to the mossy cove latrine. Once again an osprey flew off from one of the tall pines. I first walked along the rock above the latrine and saw fresh scratching coming up.
While there were no scats on top of the rock, there were plenty at the foot of it. Like the ones at South Bay they were black or brown and liquidy,
and there were roughly two columns and three rows, and along one
of the columns, as it were, the scats were smaller.
This is the best sign that a family of otters is using the pond. The scats were so fresh, I sat for twenty minutes hoping the otters would appear. Then I went along the surveyor's trail to the Big Pond thinking the otters might be there. I found trails through the grass, but probably made by deer. The grass was quite ferocious and since it lined the pond shore I could only see the very top of the beaver lodge.
Usually from this angle I have a full view. There were no otters to be seen, so I went back to the Lost Swamp Pond, still no otters there. To my surprise there were no scats along the north shore, not even at the rolling area
where I have found small squirts my last two times out. So after long, otterless
looks, I headed back down to South Bay -- no otter scats at the Second Swamp Pond end of the trail over from the Lost Swamp Pond. Once again I riled the red tailed hawk at Otter Hole Pond. There were no scats on the New Pond knoll, and none around the old South Bay dock, but I did see three dollops of soft scats on the docking rock.
I checked the Audubon Pond causeway and there were no scats there. So, did the otters come back to South Bay and then up to the ponds? I just can't picture them rushing along like that. Getting through the vegetation between the ponds and the bay must be quite laborious. I should virtually camp out at the Lost Swamp Pond, but we are off for a weekend trip. At least some scatfilled otters are around. I should be able to see who they are within the next few weeks. Walking back along the South Bay trail, an osprey almost let me walk under as it perched on a dead tree.
September 2-3 in the late afternoon we picked grapes and got a pretty good crop, almost a bucket full. Then after dinner I went to see what the
beavers were up to, bumping into a well camouflaged frog on the way.
A cold front was moving through with gusts of wind and dramatic clouds. The wind enthralled all the trees around the pond, and played across the
pond, now from the southwest and then from the southeast, which kept me thinking
that beavers were coming at me from all directions. But I actually sat for about
ten minutes before any beaver appeared. A baby swam up and out from the main lodge at 7:08 and it moved along the shore to my left evidently checking me out. Then it swam closer and almost swam down the canal near me, freshly flooded by the recent downpour, then had second thoughts, swam back and then quickly over to and down the main canal and I lost sight of it as it went down to the dam , Then at 7:15 an adult beaver came out and also swam along the shore to my left checking me out. It was more deliberate and three minutes later dove back into the lodge. Then at 7:24 a baby swam up from the dam and into the grasses across the pond from me. At the same time another adult surfaced to my left and soon dove into the burrows over there. I lost track of the baby in the grasses until at 7:33 I could just make it out nibbling grasses standing in the water. At 7:40 it swam over to me, on my right
and then dove into the lodge. Judging from the ripples I suspected that there was another beaver down by the dam. I expected an adult to swim up, but instead at 7:45 another baby swam up the canal and into the lodge -- both babies swam quickly. Five minutes later a baby popped out of the lodge and swam back down to the dam. And I noticed another adult in the middle of the pond, drifting and looking at me, Not sure what it did, as it was getting dark, but it probably was the one that soon swam down to the dam. As I headed out I looked down along the dam and at first coulodn't see any beavers, then a baby swam up to me from the far southwest corner, and when I moved it dove with a noisy flourish. So the pattern of behavior seems to have changed radically. No more congeries of beavers, no more humming, no more gnawing. Could it be that the time for gathering saplings and branches for the winter cache has arrived, and that the beavers are venturing further afield? I heard the whip- poor-will again, in the distance along the ridge, and the kingfisher cackled up and down the pond.
I got out of the cabin at about 6:30am and then had to pause along the road to relate to two fawns. One started and hopped into the woods, but the other stayed and looked me over. Then the one that fled came back and joined in the stare down and nod about, bobbing their heads as if to get a better look at me. They moved closer to me and then over onto the cut grass, on Val's side of the road, still keeping an eye on me.
When I started to walk, they ran off for about ten yards then stopped to see what I might do next. When I sat in my chair at the beaver pond all was quiet save for the chattering and hurrying-about of the red squirrels. Then at 6:45 I saw ripples heading up from the dam and cocked my camcorder, but it wasn't a beaver, just a lone duck, getting in its new colors and patterns so I'll have to check a book to figure out what kind it was. Then at 6:55 one of the baby beavers steamed up from the dam. When I turned on my camcorder it veered toward me, but, moving fast, had no time to check me out. It swam directly to and dove into the lodge. Meanwhile I was hearing very little humming from the lodges, and no beavers came out of the lodge, and no more swam up from the dam. I sat until a little after 7:30 then went back to the cabin via the pool at the head of the inner valley.
I saw no signs of fresh beaver activity as I walked around the pond, and while the pool was a bit muddy, there were no freshly cut branches in it. I enjoyed the spiders' webs
on the way through the golden rod choked field. A clump of exotic looking grasses bowed in front of me and I took a photo, the better to identify them.
So, it seems the beavers have changed, perhaps because the rain
filled their ponds. It is as if they have stopped playing in their little ponds and are once again heading off into the wide world. If so, this complicates my beaver watching. I'll have to find where they are foraging and figure out how to spy on them.
September 7 we got back from Philadelphia yesterday afternoon and stopped first at the land where Leslie picked vegetables and I recuperated by the beaver pond, where I noticed nothing new. Today I headed out a little before 10 am. It was warm, in the 80s yesterday, rather chilly at night and warming rapidly as I headed off. I took the same route that I took on the 2d, hoping to find fresh otter scats at the Lost Swamp Pond so I could pick up where I left off. I saw a lone aminita in the TI Park ridge woods.
There were no scats at the South Bay trail latrine. As I walked along Otter Hole pond meadow I noticed that the burr marigolds were in bloom, in
force. I was so intent on getting to the Lost Swamp Pond that I almost forgot to
glance over at the Second Swamp Pond. I saw two ducks out there, but no otters. As I reached the ridge around the Lost Swamp Pond, I bumped into two pileated woodpeckers. I keep seeing these birds, always paired or in threes. Life seems good for them. By my calculations this has been a banner year for bugs. Down along the river another wave of caddisflies are swarming. This was the day for big birds. I saw some flickers, and, for the first time this year, saw a green heron. It strutted along a log right in the pond and it looked like it was picking bugs off of the log, not stabbing for shiners in the pond. There were also at least two osprey about. I noticed all these birds because I decided to sit around a while and wait for otters because once again the mossy cove latrine had fresh scats.
I also think there was a spread of scats left a few days ago. The fresh scat was next to the older,
saw for one very wet squirt where bumble bees were huddled over
what, save for the pungent odor, had no resemblance to a flower.
Once again the spread gave the appearance of being the work of more than one otter. So I waited, factoring out the ripples caused by the wind. No ducks or geese about so that didn't complicate matters. But other than the green heron perching high on a tree
and then an osprey doing the same, and two kingfishers briefly
chasing each other, there was no excitement. I walked around the pond to check the north shore and while it looked like something came up out of the pond and scratched up some grass along the the north slope trail, there were no scats there, nor at the rolling area. However, I saw several dry scats, all new to me, on a large rock not far from the dam.
This rock has not been used much as a latrine over the years. Given the way the old latrines on the north shore have been neglected, maybe otters unfamiliar with the area have moved in. This rock is above the nest made in the grass right above the pond -- perhaps an otter had done that. I also took a photo showing this latrine's relationship to the mossy cove latrine, which, in the photo, is tucked in the upper right hand corner.
In a few days it will be cool enough to wear long pants again. Today, still in shorts, I decided not to cross and dams and check far flung latrines. I did take the trail down to the Second Swamp Pond and saw no otter signs. Then I cut over to the Big Pond dam and went out far enough to see that there were no otters on the lodge there.
Then I went back to the old road which is choked with asters and
golden rods, including a few purple asters,
but doesn't have any nettles, burdock, nor grass that cuts legs.
I enjoyed the bees working the blooms many with bulging balls of nectar weighing
them down.
In the afternoon I checked South Bay from a kayak. I have never seen such a good crop of water celery. Unfortunately goose season has started and there were no waterfowl harvesting the thick celery pods. I didn't see any bryazoa but I ran out of the water before I got to the end of the north cove, very shallow this year. I saw no otter signs along the shore. I continued around to the willow on the north shore of the south cove. Last time here I noticed some fresh beaver gnawing. Now there is a good bit of willow twigs and logs collected on the old lodge. Evidently some beavers are counting on wintering here. My guess is that that area will be dry by the end of October. I saw three herons over South Bay, and three osprey over Goose Island, just off the main channel of the river. All were handsome in their full black and white plumage. Their under wing patterns were perfected.
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