September 25 It was time for our annual trek to the southern boundary of our land to see the closed gentians that thrive in the moist, thick underbrush of the slope of the first ridge up from the broad pastures flanking the county road. On the way, still in our inner valley, I noticed a new flower that
Leslie had already seen and identified for me as pearly everlasting
with spare and dry white flowers and economical leaves, it suggests a parsiminous survivor, but this moist and sunny year is the first time we've seen it here. It was a no-show during the droughts. Once through the inner valley, we didn't study the so-called turtle bog that once again has water it in. The trail through the juniper jungle, untended for a year, was still passable. An elm blocked the trail down through the birches. As we headed down the wooded slope we paused to appreciate some orange mushroom that Leslie insisted also
smelled like an orange
When the woods petered out we scanned the plants under the asters and stickers and soon found the best array of closed gentians in years. Many of the plants had two or three clumps of blue and purple flowers.
Judging from the dead flowers mixed in with the vibrant, the cool damp fall had inspired this shy plant to show off.
Then as we went back up the trail, I strained to find another clump that I recalled seeing last year. I saw a vibrant plant nestled in the among the yellowing ferns.
Here was a portrait of abundance, an asterix of blue highlighting a good year.
September 27 I was out along the ponds at sunset yesterday and at dawn this morning, closing in on the otters I hoped with a check on the beavers too. I got to the ridge over looking Second Swamp Pond at about 5:45 pm, sending a cackling kingfisher up and down and then away from the pond. I saw the large mallard family once again lounging on a log now made gold by the setting sun. I can tell they are mother and ducklings by the good order they maintain. Not the least hint of hanky-panky and no anxiety over pecking order. They stirred themselves and formed a circle up pond and dined and then swam up to the endless flooded meadowsweet for their goodnights. Down pond I examined two turtles on a log and thought I could discern a definite dash of gold on chin or carapace, a subtle
counterpoint to gold of all the dying vegetation, so I think they were Blanding's turtles.
They have a tendency to show themselves at this time of year. I waited until six and then checked the otter latrines. Nothing new on the slope, nor at the lodge. On the middle of the dam I saw what might have been a throw of muddy otter scat or the diarrhea of a usually more controlled animal.
The lack of smell argued for the latter, and I couldn't see anymore scats though seeing scats in the canyons of cattails below the dam is not easy at dusk, and the otters have been scatting there. One doesn't track otters like I have for ten years without incurable optimism so I headed up to the Lost Swamp Pond with the hunch that the otters had finally moved up there. I recalled that last year I saw them at dusk up there. But tonight there was nothing moving on the pond after a few ducks flew off. I stood on a high rock, a vigil to at
least see a beaver. But none came out of the nearby lodges. Finally I saw a muskrat up pond swim to its favorite dead shrub. I've often seen its twisted trunks cradle muskrats, though this one was probably just beginning its night of foraging. The sun
had dipped below the horizon when I got to the Big Pond dam and here all was motion as a large fleet of geese, half with flagging white tails up, moved up pond.
There was also a ripple right below me, a duck, I assumed, then I saw a small brown head swim a bit and disappear. Since I didn't see a rotating tail, I thought it might be a mink or even a baby otter. I stood on the dam for ten minutes waiting for it to reappear and the shadows kept seducing me to stay but no otter or otter family appeared. I crossed the dark dam and then gave the deer waking in the woods something to think about.
I was out of bed at 6am this morning, enjoyed some tentative "peabodys" from the white throated sparrows, and got to the Big Pond just when it was bright enough to see. So I waited for that little brown head to
reappear, and in about five minutes it did, a muskrat swam off to the marsh along the south shore of the pond. At first I didn't see any geese, and I do hear them fly into the river a dark sometimes, but as I crossed the dam, I soon saw they were all up in the southeast corner of the pond. I didn't take my usual route up to the Lost Swamp Pond but went over directly to the Second Swamp Pond which presented a pretty picture as the tall trees on the ridge to the north reflected the glory of an unclouded dawn,
but there was nothing stirring in the pond, after a few ducks flew off. I studied all the usual grassy haunts of otters but no stray ripples gave any promise of an otter storming out with a fat fish in its mouth. So I walked up the ridge and faced the sun rising over the Lost Swamp Pond. There were no beavers about so I moved to the south shore of the pond so I could get a view of the upper lodge in the southeast expanse of the pond. There I saw at least three beavers. All their activity was centered at the lodge and I thought I could see the starts of a winter cache of branches. So once again the beavers seem to be adjusting to the changing season by moving to another lodge. This colony can be credited with having a knack for keeping their many lodges habitable. Working on the theory that if the otters aren't in the ponds, they are in South Bay, I headed that way, taking a whistful glance at the pool of water that was once Otter Hole Pond. Then as I walked along the meadow below Otter Hole dam, I saw a grey head move through the grasses below me. I first thought it was a fawn and walked over to see it frozen in the grasses. Then I saw a deer run out of the meadow to the north and then I saw a grey coyote trotting after it, but stopping and going, I think, straight up the north ridge. Then just to my right, I saw a raccoon hurrying away from the meadow
up the south ridge. I could paint this in lurid colors and describe flights from this fearsome predator but I think I was scary presence that motivated all three animals. I took a photo of the meadow where I saw the coyote -- I don't think of them
lurking in places like that and there was a noble stand of mushrooms on a mossy rock bordering the meadow.
As I walked along the South Bay trail I flushed two herons. I didn't see any otters, or otter scats. I walked around Audubon Pond and didn't see any otter signs there. So it wasn't a case of otters turning back from the
ponds to avoid a coyote and spending their morning in South Bay. It was a case of I know not what, save that it is a big river and big islands with other big islands close by. I consoled myself by studying what the beavers have done around Audubon Pond where their activity is etched so clearly. I saw three freshly tasted ash trees
and another small ash hung up and the maple they cut blew over, but it too was hung up.
There were no exasperated beavers to be seen, so I hurried home and had my breakfast at 9am instead of the usual 8.
September 28 with rain coming we went out to the beaver ponds. Leslie hasn't seen them in awhile. Up on the TI Park ridge bluejays entertained with their rusty gate calls as they coursed through the low trees. Down along the South Bay trail a few feeble peepers sang from the trees. We took the short cut over the ridge and then sat briefly enjoying the view from the rock south of the Second Swamp Pond dam. Then I got to work to see if otter signs were still scarce, knowing that now I could credit a coyote for scaring the otters away, not that I really thought it could. I soon had my answer. The center of dam had a spread of fresh otter scats
and on the mud a beaver heaved up on the dam there were otter prints going left and right.
Next to some prints I saw a dead frog with one leg evidently chewed. Though it looked rather used, it was still soft and I assume that if an otter didn't kill it, an otter certainly toyed with it.
A few more feet along the dam, I saw more otter scats and then on the northern edge of the pillover area of the dam, I saw even more scats. I looked back and took a photo of the length of dam that hosted all this otter
activity sometime after a beaver pushed mud up on the dam.
There were also fresh scats at the lodge
some of these quite slimy, brown
and green.
There were also scats filled with scales and fish parts.
Could the slime be from eating frogs? As I bent over debating that, I was almost overwhelmed by the odor of otter scats. I expected a riot of scats on the slope of the auxilliary lodge, that has been the otters' favorite latrine, but here I only saw one large scat,
a black round pat with fish business in it.
I crossed back over the dam, this time trying to figure out if the otters came up from Otter Hole Pond. The trails in the grass were hard to read, but were there. I saw one print on the mud of the dam pointing up from that direction, and I saw a scat positioned on the first slope behind the dam which suggested to me that the otter was facing west toward Otter Hole Pond.
That determined, I headed up to the Lost Swamp Pond, expecting that now, at least, I would see piles of scats in the latrines up there, if not the otters themselves. Leslie was sitting up there already and when I came
up the geese flew off. They have tolerated one person for several weeks, but not two. There were no scats along the north shore, but at the west end of the dam,
where I have been finding a few small scats over the past month now and then, I saw a bloody red fish or frog part,
probably the former, and another slimy scat.
All obviously the work of one otter. I walked along the top of the dam and saw trails, but I've also seen muskrats swim to this dam. Out on the rock next to the lodge just east of the dam there were no otter scats, nor on the lodge, which even impressed me as a comfortable place to lie down.
We went over to the mossy cove latrine and there were no scats there nor near the bank lodge there. So I was excited, once again. I just missed seeing the otters, and I was puzzled once again. Why wasn't there more scat
at the Lost Swamp Pond? It started to rain so we moved down to the Big Pond dam. No otters here and no scats either. The yellowing fields are beautiful and we sat on our old perch. The rain stopped. We remembered the old days at this dam. All through
the 1980s it was one of our haunts, especially at this time of year, and we never saw otters nor their scats. Here or at the other ponds, all of which, back then had more water because the beavers were just reaching their stride. A few monarch fluttered by and four goldfinches sketched my idea of fun as they undulated noisily high in the air. Heading home we ran into more squeaking bluejays, though that makes them sound silly. No bird is more down to business this time of year than a bluejay.
September 29 a chilly, damp day after a night of rain. I went down to check White Swamp, going down to the cove where I had seen otter and beaver signs in the winter. There was a new scent mound just up from the water, more like an otters since it lacked the mud a beaver usual pushes up.
But I didn't see any fresh otter scats on it or elsewhere on the shore. There was only a rather dry old scat. And otters usually make their marks a few yards up on shore, and there were some stripped sticks. Although the vegetation on shore was still green, the clumps of green out in
the swamp have not only lost the green color but the leaves on most of the low shrubs have dropped.
Everywhere else the change has been colorful and slow, but not here. I went down to where the creek from the Deep Pond goes into the swamp and saw where a beaver came up out of the channel into the swamp, leaving a token of mud,
and gnawed a bit on a gnarly old elm.
There was no beaver activity up at the dam. I was puzzled why all the recent rain had not bulked up the pond behind the dam. Then I saw that it has a leak deep in the bottom of the dam -- a slow leak, but a beaver will have to do some work to get a pond back. Rather than go up the creek, I went back along the ridge to look for more beaver signs and see if any otters have been visiting the holes in the bank that they visited so often in the winter. I did find a freshly gnawed stick neatly left on an old beaver feeding niche.
The soil here which is mostly humus seems to stay rather black and moist looking so I think these niches always look well used, but a beaver has been back on this one. Just outside the holes the otters faniced, the huge
layered pile of scats had completely washed away.
These otters evidently have no time for nostalgia and visits to old dens. I checked the Deep Pond dam and water is leaking over the beaver's patch job.
Back on the island I went out to check the ponds to see if the otters had returned to the Second Swamp Pond or left more scats at the Lost Swamp Pond. The clouds broke up, accompanied by a brief sundrenched shower, just as I reached the rock overlooking the pond. I was greeted by a rainbow
arching over the northeast corner of the pond.
Well, gold for me would be otters in the pond, but none were about. I headed up to the Lost Swamp Pond, angling up so I could approach it from the southwest, cutting across the light wind from the northwest. A few ducks
flew off from the western end of the pond, and all the geese were at the northeast end. I sat down on the log that afforded a view of the lodge at the far end of the pond. No otters there, but the northwest wind seemed to be wafting the smell of otter scat, and sure enough, there were four scats in back of me at the mossy
cove latrine. Three were black
and one was a glob of white.
I cerntainly would have noticed this yesterday, so otters were either still at the pond when we visited yesterday or came back. Since the beavers seem to keep all four of their lodges here in good shape, since they rotate their lives in them, moving every three or four months, the lodges momentarily vacant must make good dens for otters. I countinued around the pond expecting to see more scats at the dam, and maybe even along the north slope, but there was nothing there. The otters still haven't made themselves at home in these
ponds. Since I came by bike to the entrance of the park, I had to return the way I came. I went back via the Second Swamp Pond dam and the East Trail Pond. There were no new scats along the dam nor anything new at the latrine above the auxilliary lodge along the north shore of the pond. So otters did not come back to this
pond where, judging the from scats yesterday, they had pretty good luck foraging. I consoled myself by admiring the asters back in the shade.
The last time there was a load of scat at the Second Swamp Pond there were also two scats at the old otter trail up from the East Trail Pond. There was no sign of any otters romping through but up in the middle of the trail tucked in some grass was a curl of tubular poop. At a cursory glance I decided it must be a skunk poop with insect wings, but I took a photo. Now as a I look at the photo it certainly looks like an otter scat with fish parts!
Still, wouldn't an otter do a bit of scratching at the latrine? Back along South Bay I checked the New Pond knoll and there was nothing new there. Then I went up to the old dock at the end of the bay. No scats. I sat briefly to enjoy the brilliant light and I noticed three mammals, not ducks, bobbing along the marsh across from me. Three young raccoons and one went about five yards out in the water, snared something worth bringing back and the two other raccoons jumped the lucky hunter with joy and they disappeared back into the marsh. As close as I'll probably ever come to seeing three baby raccoons imitating three baby otters!
Two rings tails were a bit in the air. It would be nice to see their poops after this adverture, but the marsh is rather thick there.
September 30 I headed off a little after 8, once again checking the Second Swamp Pond first. I sat up on the rock south of the dam, but there were no otters. I had to content myself with some wood ducks that lingered by the dam after the mallards by the lodge flew off.
These ducks were rather brave but flew off. Still further along the dam, another wood duck swam closer to the dam rather than flee. This is a change for them. Recently they have been more skittish than the mallards. I
crossed the dam and while it is clear that a beaver has been active pushing up mud and vines from the pond
it wasn't clear if otters had been back. The morning dew was thick, making old scats glisten. I trusted that I would see better along the dry north slope. And I did. The scats I saw two days ago on the dam, suddenly looked so different as to be fresh
but I studied old photos and this striking photo is the result of rain washing a bit of fecal matter off the scats, or perhaps a raccoon came along and licked them. There was also a bit of the lodge dug out. There was
nothing new at the latrine above the auxilliary lodge. I recrossed the dam on my way to the Lost Swamp Pond, and looked hard at some flaky mud, or muddy scat. Grasping straws. The best sign of otters would be prints in the mud a beaver pushes up on
the dam every night. There was nothing new at the Lost Swamp Pond, at least apropos the otters. I could see that the beavers are making a cache around the lodge in the southeast end of the pond, just as they did last year. I couldn't sit around and wait
for otters - which is what I will have to start doing. I went home via the Big Pond and there were no scats there, and no beaver activity for that matter. This is the first September since I have been watching otters -- 12 years, that I haven't
seen otters. And still I consistently saw scats. I'll have to work harder.
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