September 8 to 12, 2005

September 8 showers for most of the day, some with big rain drops, though it was a cold front coming through not a message from the tropics. I relied on the weather bureau radar which showed the last shower having moved through, and
immediately confronted a moderate shower which kept me tarrying in the woods until it let up. Just as the shower started I was up on the rocks behind the TI Park water tower and saw six or seven does and fawns browsing. Granted their fur was wet, but the fur of the bigger does seemed to be losing its reddish hue.

Winter is on the way. I scanned the Second Swamp Pond for otters and flushed three ducks and saw two on the shore close to me, balled up and preening their feathers, who would not be bothered. While the wind was calm today, when the
rain stopped, water kept dripping from the branches of the dead trees in the Lost Swamp Pond setting off a pattern of ripples that kept me on tiptoes as I approached the mossy cove latrine. After sorting through all those ripples, I had to figure out the scats in the latrine that had all been enlivened by the rain, all of them looked fresh.

Plus there was an array on the west side of the bare dirt rolling area there, and that could have been new, probably is, though last time here I don't think I checked that area.

As always. I considered this an invitation to wait a half hour to see if otters might appear, even though there was not a dry place to sit. At the end of the vain vigil I did see a small muskrat cruising the shore and as I left it was out diving at its usual pantry out in the middle of the pond. I noticed I was standing in a grove of evergreen seedlings. The little white pines seem to be doing okay

but the cedars seem to have reached their limit, as some of the needles were dead.

It is less shady here thanks to the beavers, but probably too shady from the parent pines nearby for these seedlings to prosper, but at least the deer have not browsed them yet. I walked around to check the otter latrines on the other side, and saw right away that something had broken a new trail in the grass as it came out of the pond onto the north shore.

The otter left a little scat too.

Then up at the rolling area, there was another fresh scat. Was this deposited by the lone otter that makes its rounds through here, or did one of the group that seems to have scatted at the mossy cove come over here alone? All the scats on the rock closer to the dam were washed away. If we did not have company for dinner, I would have stayed to see the beavers appear -- the sun had come out. I've seen no signs of beaver activity around the Lost Swamp Pond, but down on the far shore of the Upper Second Swamp Pond I can see the creamy, tiny ribbon of beaver work in the brown remains of a downed tree.

The grass was too wet to wade over there. On the way back I noticed a small mushroom decorated with a partridge berry.

Then on the tree struck by lightning a few years ago, there was as applause of chicken of the woods

-- doesn't it look like many hands clapping?

September 9 picked apples and sawed up the ironwoods the beavers have cut down this past year. Then I tried to figure out what the beavers may have been up to in the last few days. I checked the poplars above the pond, the ridge behind the lodge and the woods below the dam. While I saw trees cut that I have not noticed before, I can't say that I saw anything that looked like it was cut in the last few days. Surprisingly after cutting the small poplar across the road, they have not been back to get it, nor did they even taste any of the large poplars on
our land, and, they had cut down quite a few of them last fall. Up above the lodge, they only took ironwoods though the they tasted one bitternut hickory. This was one of an interesting clump of four bitternuts that appear to be growing out of an old
stump.

I can't believe that the ur bitternut was as big as the stump which looks to be about three or four feet in diameter. A bit down the hill behind the lodge, the beavers managed to get under the chicken wire around a medium sized white oak and girdled it completely around, four inches wide, just up from the ground.

Too bad, but in time we'll get some good firewood. There was no work below the dam until I got to the poplars that Leslie saw the other day not far from our cabin over the ridge. Also I don't see any stripped sticks or twigs or
branches in or beside the pond. I still have to check the trails going from the small pool at the head of the valley. Last year beavers made a trail from there to the poplars some 100 yards away along the trail we made through the woods to the old apple trees near the poplars. Otherwise there were at least two phoebes active around the pond, and a large flock of chickadees and perhaps some sparrows mixed in up in the pines near the pond. This appears to be a very good year for apples, even the old tree near the Deep Pond is full of apples -- rather tasty ones too.

September 10 cool day and between chores and going to the land, I hiked over to the peninsula jutting out into South Bay to take photos of the beaver's improvements to the lodge under the big willow tree and to see if the otters are still hanging out there. The woods leading to the marsh is usually a good place for mushrooms, but I saw none today despite it being damp. My first stop was to try to find the rolling area they used in the spring, and thanks to the litter of leaves on it, I first walked right over it. So I don't thing the otters have been using it. I noticed that I could see the lodge under the willow from the deer trail,

in part because leaves are beginning to fall and in part because the beavers have taken out several small trees. Indeed, the beaver trail, made by their foraging, almost reaches the deer trail that ribs the center of the marsh. The
beavers have been coming out of the hole at the edge of the marsh.

There is just a hint of water in it. The lodge has some mud packed on it.

I could even see a beavers paw print.

There are some freshly gnawed logs about and a collection of leafy branches. When I kayaked by the lodge the other day, I noticed a channel in the mud coming out from the lodge, say six inches deeper than the general bottom. There is
also a channel coming out from the hole in the marsh, but I think as the water level lowers in the next month, that these beavers will be left high and dry. I noticed some recent raccoon poop, but no otter scats. There was a trail going into the marsh on the east side of the willow. Since it led to a willow, I assume the beavers made it. A wood duck landed nearby, and this was where I startled a wood duck family back into the marsh a number of times this summer. As I sat soaking in the willow world, I saw a tern drive off a heron who then perched on a stick coming out of the bay. It went into stalking mode, I thought, just to show the tern that it wasn't incovenienced by being driven away. Then it stabbed the water and brought out a big fish. But it seemed dead. The heron swished it in the water trying to get some life back into it. Then the bird flew off, dropping the fish back in the water. Nothing else took any interest in it. Because the water has gone down, I was able to follow the deer trail out to the island, though walking on a ten inch wide trail of mud flanked by eight foot tall cattails does form an exclamation point in your memory.

Then I reached dry grass, then the rock and firm earth of the island. I checked all the rocks along the shore and the rolling area the otters used and I saw no fresh scats and most of the old scats were either washed away or grown over. All this conforms to my theory: when the marsh gets too low, the otters move on. Several weeks ago I noticed the beavers had been gnawing on the large gangling willow on the south west edge of the island. I photographed that work

and older gashes sculpted in the thick willow trunks,

but saw nothing that I could call new and fresh. The rock here extends out into the bay making the area very shallow.

Beavers have often foraged out here, even leaving four girdled white oaks as a monument. Two of this quadruple growing out of a tree humans first cut are still alive, having grown up close enough to forge a bark bond that the
beavers didn't get to.

 

Before setting my muscles to splitting ironwood logs at the land, I scouted the area southwest of the beaver pond for beaver work. Not only was there no work but there trails were clogged with rotting birches blown down by our recent winds. These impediments made the small swamps beyond seem even that more remote and I had to sit and wonder at it all.

Then I turned my mind from beavers and nosed about for other rarities. Here there were a number of handsome mushrooms,

including one flesh colored one shaped like a human skull, a nascent puffball?

and a hoard eagerly devouring a birch.

The usual golden rods and white snakeroot were all about, and down below I saw a small white flower, which I don't recollect seeing elsewhere.

Then a dull brownish butterfly kept a few strides in front of me.

We saw one like this on the road, and thought it might be dying. That one looked a bit beat up. This one seemed in fine feddle, so it is simply a dull butterfly, or shall I say, an understated beauty. There was no sign that the beavers made it to the turtle bog which is filled with water, but now there are
flooded grasses everywhere, a good patch of nodding beggartick with dull yellow flowers and fancy long leaves.

I expect some ducks will discover all this. The apple trees back here are dead or fruitless. Six years ago we found some apples back here. Our trails are impassable in several places. Prickly ash flourishes back here and birches are down here and there, and then there is the inexorable growth of the juniper and buckthorn. I went up to sit by the beaver pond at 5pm, going early on purpose, just in case the lack of activity I saw here last time arose because the beavers are on shifts with a few heading off early for farflunged activities. However, from 5pm to 7:15 I did not hear a hum let alone see a beaver.

I thought surely when the sun stopped shining on the lodge, a beaver would wake up. There were a few weak ripples around the beaver lodge perhaps made by a baby beaver getting wet without breaking the water, but why no mewing? It was quite chilly this evening, but we have a few warm days and nights in store and I will camp out here until I figure these beavers out. I did see some possible recent activity in the pond, and now I have a better mental imprint and photos of arrangements around the pond so I will be able to tell if the beavers make any
adjustments. I have noticed these sudden quiet spells in other colonies and sometimes it means the beavers moved out, but those beavers usually faced low water and these beavers have plenty. Otherwise, I heard a few bullfrogs, the usual tree frogs, and, I think, one wood frog. Ducks and birds ignored the beautiful evening reflections on the pond and shiners jumped out here and there without a heron or kingfisher to molest them. One might say all was suspiciously peaceful.

September 12 we went to the land yesterday and I took Lester out to see the rare bloom and mushrooms. The latter are boletes and the white flower is a kind of little orchid, lady tresses. I also checked the beaver pond and could see no evidence that beavers had been out since we were here at 7pm yesterday. Tomorrow we will spend the night and see if the beavers have left -- very strange if they did.

Warm today, back in the 80s. Usually torture at this time of year, but this year we are used to the heat, and we can still swim -- water temperature down to 68, was in the upper 70s a month ago. I headed off at a little after 9 to check on the otters. I flushed a doe and two fawns on the TI Park ridge. In other years I had staring contests with the fawns on that ridge, but these two looked big enough to have outgrown that. Not that they would hang around with an adult showing them how to behave. As I walked by the Otterhole Pond meadow a heron flew up from the
patch of water still remaining there. I still doubt that a pond that has been so shallow all year could attract piscivores. I paused to ponder the Second Swamp Pond, nothing stirred at first and then a heron flew off. As I approached the Lost Swamp Pond there was a swirling wind at my back, but it had been so long since I had seen an otter, I didn't think through my approach. But when I saw an otter atop the lodge near the dam, I ducked to consider the angles. The wind gusts seemed to be coming across the pond as much as coming from my back, so I hurried up to the edge of the shade on the point which not only cheated the otters from catching my scent but brought me closer to them. One otter briefly stood for a scat, at least it waved its tail, then it balled down with another otter still lying down. For a half hour I studied the ball of fur on the side of the lodge, and could only be sure of two otters. Meanwhile a tiny wake came out of the lodge in the middle of the pond -- best I could tell it was a wee muskrat. When it reached the shore, I lost it. There was also a kingfisher about, a heron, and two sandpipers flying and quarreling together. Finally the otters stirred and I saw a pup climb up an over the lodge, and then the mother,

and there was a pup left behind that stirred and joined the others over on the other side of the lodge. I didn't have long to wait until I saw them in the water, swimming toward me and taking shallow dives.

They surfaced close to a couple of turtles on a log and the turtles didn't budge and the otters continued fishing. If they had headed down into the western end of the pond, I would have had perfect viewing with the sun at my back
and the wind not a factor, but they headed for the southeastern expanse and as they swam below me, they all got my scent, periscoped and snorted, dove, resurfaced twently yards away, periscoped again and looked over in my direction,

dove and swam to the nearby lodge. Then I didn't see them and assumed they went into the lodge, which is interesting, because I think that is where the beavers are staying. though I am due for coming out here in the evening to
check on the beavers here. However, within a few minutes I saw the otters swimming further out into the pond, then they swam over to the lodge by the dam and disappeared. I was hoping and expecting to find a family of three and unless I start seeing other groups of otters, have to assume that this is the mother and the two pups I saw in South Bay back in July. I must say the otters all seemed small, and none of them seemed to catch a fish while I was watching. But when I checked their nearby latrine, I had no doubt they were getting food. Big fresh black scats were
terraced up from the pond to the grass by their latest rolling area.

Some scats were on moss, some or rock, and some on grass. These otters were touching all the bases. I didn't check the north shore for scats, thinking it better policy not to bother the otters since I want to come out and look at them again. I had planned to check both the East Trail Pond and the Second Swamp Pond lodge for otter scats, and, though I saw otters, went on and did just that. There were no scats on the New Pond knoll, nor at the East Trail Pond latrines. That pathway that the otters, beavers and me have used so many years is growing over with grasses. On my way to the Second Swamp Pond, I recalled that there were other things to see and looked down and saw a bold stand of cardinal flowers, more or less where they always are, but there are more of them this year. Plus there seems to be more light in this once dark valley and the red cardinal flowers were ringed by a few yellow burr marigolds.

The Second Swamp Pond lodge looked convenient for otters,

but I couldn't find any scat on it, old or new. On my way home I saw a fat toad

on the South Bay trail, and a leopard frog not far from it.

September 13 facing a warm night we went to spend it at the land, and, of course, I sat next to the beaver pond, this time, late into the night, from 7:08 until 8:35 pm, which is about an hour and twenty minutes after sunset, which, at
this time of year, is rather dark. No beaver appeared, and no signs of any fresh work. So to my complete surprise, the beavers have left. Since none of the beavers I saw acted at all sickly, I doubt that they were swept away by epidemic disease. No signs of trappers or hunters -- not the season for either. My guess is that the boss beaver simply determined that given the number of mouths wanting to be fed that there was not enough ready food to accumulate a cache sufficient for the winter. I certainly would have argued that there was. There are tall poplars not far from
the pond. As I left the pond, the moon peaked over the trees and I was sure I saw a ripple highlighted by the moonlight, but no ripples came to the edge of the pond which would have happened if a beaver had been in the pond. Then I thought I saw a ghost beaver, two glowing eyes and moonbeams reflected in the water outlining a tail. It was time to go back to the cabin. The warm spell has brought the mosquitoes back out and the long wait was an ordeal. I can't believe the beavers are gone, and that, perhaps for a long time, I will have to wait at this pond no more.