September 17 a still sunny morning. I took Mark and Bonnie in the boat over to South Bay and I rowed them in to see the bryozoa. The strong winds of yesterday and/or the cold last night, below 50 degrees, may have done in most of the bryozoa. We only saw three or four, and one of them, which I brought up in a net, was nothing but a handful of jelly with only one "colonist" still on it. Mark fished out one small blob of jelly, the remnant of a blasted colony. Otherwise, there was a good show of fish, snails and water celery. Mark saw a worm on the bottom much like I saw the other day. As we vainly tried to get into my spring docking rock, we watched a mink work the shore. It gave us several glances as it danced by us some ten feet away. I rowed up to the usual dock rock, and, as usual first went up to check Audubon Pond before heading off to see if otters were in the farflung ponds. We noticed the swaying of some golden rods on top of the beaver lodge in the pond which seemed odd because there was no wind. Then a little black body popped out of the brush on the lodge, and then another. So we moved down the causeway path lined with mullein and thistle to get a better view, careful to avoid the three generous otter scats in the hard dirt above the pipes through the causeway.
These were very fresh scats.
In the small pond behind the causeway we saw several pollywogs. It looked to me that the pond grasses there had been worked through by the otters. On the other side of the causeway, in Audubon Pond, we saw a gigantic, healthy pectinella magnifica,
the largest I've ever seen, and shaped like a double brain.
Meanwhile the otters, though seemingly restless, popping up to scat on the top of the lodge now and then, stayed on the lodge, always nestling back down into the brush and logs of the lodge. In about 20 minutes the all got up and slipped into the pond, the larger mother first,
followed by the two pups. One followed quickly, while the other took its time, even pausing to poop before getting into the pond. They fished over to the east shore, mostly bobbing up and down in the water, and the mother led them into some tall grass, where, judging from the parting of the grass, they had been before. Looking at the video, I can see that the mother caught something before she swam into the grass so perhaps she went there so it would be easier to divvy up the catch and share it with the pups. After a minute or so they were back in the pond and fished together smartly out into the middle of the pond. Then as they fished to the northwest corner of the pond, the mother seemed to go her separate way. I lost them all for a bit, and thought they might have gone to one of the bank burrows over there. They had given no indication that they had seen us. I went back to get something in the boat, and when I returned a few minutes later, the otters had gone back to the lodge. The mother, we assume, briefly did some fishing in the shallows near the lodge. Then she went back on the lodge, disappearing into the brush where the pups had been occasionally scatting.
Now they were all quiet though now and then oozing out of the their hiding place among the golden rod on top of the lodge with a little scratching activity. I went back in the boat to get Leslie, and came back to learn that the otters had stayed on the lodge. The wind began to pick up with some gusts from our back, and one of the otters went into the water and around the lodge. Another popped up for a scat and then went down the other side of the lodge. So, since the wind might betray us and the otters had moved, we moved around to the north
shore of the pond which afforded us a better view of what was going on. The lodge, which has not been muddied over by beavers for two years, has a depression there providing another perfect bed for three otters. It looked like they were all lumped
together, but I only saw two heads bobbing up.
One long body looked like it wasn't connected to one of the heads. Mothers, in my brief experience, I generally sounder sleepers than the pups. One pup seemed most active, kneading the fur of the other pup with its jaw, then rolling on its back half using the other pup as a scrathing post. Then it would settle on its belly, lazing its chin on a thin gray log. We had been watching them for almost an hour and a half, seeing precious little dynamic activity. We tried to move closer once again and this time first one, and then the other two, saw us and they all quietly slipped into the lodge. Even when beavers were there, otters used a penthouse apartment. Two years without beavers, the lodge was quite porous with holes for otters to slip into. Perhaps because this was such a perfect place for a den, they didn't make any noise as they hid deeper into the lodge. We then walked to the bench closer to the lodge, and there were two otter scats on the bench.
No sure sign of recent beaver activity. Down at the dock rock we noticed large willow branches taken by a beaver
The branches were on the top of the lower trunk, evidently done by a beaver with a good stretch or one that climbed out on the trunk. Then we went off in the boat for a short tour of the islands, going around Picton and
between Murray and Maple islands. We saw several elegant cormorants, most fishing alone or joining a few gulls on the rocks freshly exposed as the water level dropped.
September 19 the remnants of Hurricane Isabel heading our way which gives us a hot, humid, gusty day with much sun. On the South Bay trail I saw my first monarch caterpillar
-- only one so far, usually I see them by the scores. I took the short cut up and over to Otter Hole Pond, which, save for the wind, was quiet. No new scat. I walked along the rock dens and they seemed unused, which is
understandable with the water level getting lower. The Lost Swamp Pond is most exposed to the southeast wind and that kept ducks and geese off it. A large flock of robins, I think, enjoyed flying against the wind. There were no new otter scats here
either, and nothing new at the beaver lodges. I disturbed a heron in the muddy upper Second Swamp Pond and it flew so slowly up into the wind I had time to get my camera out, but I didn't. I walked down to the Second Swamp Pond lodge which still looks
unclaimed. Not until I went below the dam did I see a wide range of beaver work -- canal digging and a good harvest mostly of ash.
I also happened upon a black squirrel huddled on a low pine branch to avoid the wind.
I was about to sagely conclude that the wind kept animals under cover when I plopped my self next to the East Trail Pond dam and was treated to the slow voyages of at least two and perhaps the usual three beavers there. The video clip shows how much higher the younger beaver swims out of the water. The brisk wind did seem to make it harder for them to smell me. There was sniffing in my direction but no splashing. There was no new otter scats so I hesitate to suggest that the beavers were once again coming out after a round of
otter foraging. On my way to Audubon Pond, I went on the north shore of Thicket Pond where there is indeed fresh work, several maples taken down at the east end of the pond, and I see the curious combination of the downed and girdled red oaks from their
last harvest with the fresh green maples fallen on top of them.
There was a nice bit of sculpture left by the beavers. Though hang-ups like this make me think that beavers work by the clock and have no compunction against leaving work in the middle of something.
There are larger maples cut at the west end of the pond.
Where, of course, they are quite convenient to the deeper end of the pond.
To better enjoy the wind, I climbed the rock cliff up to the ridge and I walked along that to the trail to Audubon Pond. Clouds raced by but in bunches which kept the sun out. Audubon Pond was raked by the wind, which
performed a service in blowing a bryozoa to the shore. I tried to fish in out with a stick from the beaver lodge, but it was rapidly aging and mostly fell apart. No otters appeared and no new scats, no signs of beaver either. A day without seeing otters is due me, but I wish I had seen fresh scat. There were new otter prints in the mud at Audubon Pond,
but it is hard to judge how fresh they are. Once home I swam in the river, and finally it clouded over, cooled down and the still brisk winds delivered needed rain.
September 20 I headed off to the ponds at 4pm, aiming to see beavers. But I first went to where I last saw otters. On the way I saw a striking blue wasp dragging a spider methodically into the grass along the path
I assume the spider was paralyzed. It certainly didn't move as I watched. Audubon Pond was sundrenched and quiet. Only as I left did a kingfisher and a heron fly in. I did flush a goldfinch, I think, either molting or getting in its colors. And I saw a caterpillar.
I went to the bench, with my eyes on the lodge, and judging from the otter prints in the mud, no otter had been up at the bench since yesterday. I deigned to take a photo of the decaying pectinella magnifica in the water
which happened to block one of the entrances to the bank beaver lodge, another indication, I think, that the beavers are no longer there. I certainly saw no sign of them, and as I walked around the pond, I saw no signs of otters either. I went back to the South Bay trail, and then checked the New Pond
knoll -- nothing new, and went up the north shore of Otter Hole Pond -- no otters there. As I came downthe ridge to the East Trail Pond, I saw the little beaver diving into the water behind the dam, and by the time I got down the ridge it had gone into the bank beaver lodge by the dam. The otter rolling area looked freshly dug into but I didn't see any scat around it. I sat under the tall pine tree. The beaver didn't come out again, and no otters materialized. The kingfisher made several smart dives, but none close to me. Despite a little rain last night the ponds keep losing water, so, in this pond there is a larger apron of mud and
though indistinct it looked like more otter prints there to me. Then I noticed some old scat on two rocks now on the mud behind the dam
Then in the grass behind the dam, I saw very fresh otters scats.
Once again, I wonder if the beaver was out to check on things after another bout of otter foraging. I moved over to the Second Swamp Pond to see if the beavers were down in the canals below the dam. I went to the big rock beside the dam, and, unfortunately, cracked a few sticks on the way.
No sooner had I settled on the rock than a beaver swam out from the dam and splashed, and splashed again as it headed further out in the pond. A few minutes later I saw some rippling in the canal and then a beaver went over the dam into the pond pulling a small log. I looked to see if it went to the lodge, but I think the other beaver interrupted its progress. Then when I moved up on the rock to get a better view of the dam, I saw a beaver head there below a tangle of branches. If it had only started nibbling it would have been like last year, but it was obviously worried about me. Soon enough it left, swimming along the dam, then hurrying up the pond. It went up near the lodge, a perfect place to get a better scent of me, swam back and forth a bit, and then dove into the lodge. I went up to the lodge, startled by a bright yellow flower,
and for the first time in a long while saw signs of beaver work there -- a small stripped stick out and the pond, and some clearing away of the vegetation on the lodge.
As I walked up the shore I saw that the beavers have been trimming the ash they cut down recently, making a wide path in the grasses as they did.
Then when I got up to the Lost Swamp Pond dam I was greeted by a beaver coming from the lodge near the dam, swimming over to me,
and quietly diving. At the foot of the old otter rolling area I saw a nice, fairly large, half stripped log floating in the water.
Nothing warms a pond like fresh beaver work. Then at the west end of the pond I saw that the strong winds of yesterday did the beavers some good. Three partially cut trees had fallen over, victims of the southeast wind. Two were maples with blazing crowns.
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One tree the beavers had almost cut down in the spring. I could see at the base that there was no new gnawing -- the wind blew it down.
As I was investigating them to see if the beavers had taken any bark, finding a little gnawed patch on one maple,
I noticed a beaver in the shallows of the pond below me feasting on grasses. I had never seen a beaver acting so much like a muskrat, churning the water, though not so much with its jaws, as with its paws as it gathered grasses from the bottom of the pond. Fate may have dropped maples for its delection but it couldn't resist the waning grasses. All the while two barred owls were tuning up in nearby trees on the ridge. There were no otter scats around, as best as I could judge in the gloaming, so I think the otters are denning tonight in the East Trail Pond. The Big Pond was quiet, and I was gratified to see that the wind or the deer had subdued the tall grasses below the dam. Having had a good hike thus far, I reconciled myself to there being no beavers in the pond, when I saw some freshly stripped sticks on the dam.
The far flunged beavers with a drought putting an end to their wettest summer in years are getting back down to old familiar ways.
September 22 there is somewhat of a tradition of me going out on my birthday and seeing otters. On a cool, cloudy morning, I went out to do my duty. I took the short-cut up and over to Otter Hole Pond. I didn't expect otters to be there, but their being there is close to perfection. So I check there first. I was greeted instead by a raccoon climbing up a dead tree trunk at the edge of the pond
It saw me first so I thought that a silly way to escape with so much underbrush and even rock dens nearby. I snapped away with my camera and it climbed a little higher. I continued on, going below the dam, after ascertaining that there was no new otter scat at the latrine at the end of the dam. When I turned to check on the raccoon, it had disappeared, and I realized that it would have been nice to get some video of it climbing down the tree. The thick, tall grasses below the dam have collapsed, perhaps by their own weight or from being worked back and forth by the wind. There was a dried out otter scat on the dam, only one that I could see, and still no sign that any critters have been up and over it much at all. Blue jays are the prominent bird now, and once again I heard a scarlet tanager
distress call above the jays' rioting. Of course, I came down slowly to the East Trail Pond dam because here is where I expected to find otters. But the pond was quet save for a kingfisher diving now and then. I began to wonder if the kingfisher's presense was an invariable sign of the otters' absence. Also the beavers were not to be seen, and I nurse a theory that beavers out in the day are a sign that otters are around. Plus I did not see fresh scat on the bank, but I sat
quietly for a half hour before I begana slow walk around the pond looking for scat. There was none on the dam. On the moss rock I found the remains of a bird. Its black feathers were still wet, and while the meat on its bones had been eaten,
its entrails remained.
Nearby was a tailless frog -- half eaten and invested with bugs. The latter I could blame on otters, and with the bird feather being wet I wondered if the otters might not have killed it. However, judging from its remaining claw it was not a duck.
As I continued around I saw a general spread of scat on the bank where I had seen it before.
Four or five separate spits of scat encouraged me to believe the family had just been through, though at this time of year, especially when it is cloudy, the scats do not age quickly. Since I had put in over a half hour watching already, I set my sites for Audubon Pond but, as always, turned back to look at the pond before leaving. I saw ripples a little to the right and a little beyond the lodge. I collapsed behind a pine trunk next to the pond (avoiding the otter scat behind me) and watched two otters, at least, swim to the lodge where they fished around it parimeter, on each side. I was looking for three otters but had trouble, at first, making sure there were at least two. Finally one parked itself on a log, well out of the water, and worked on a big fish and the other swam nearby. Then I saw them together most of the time.
Once they were back to back on a log, both eating, probably pollywogs,
and they both dove off at the same time. At least one, and probably both, fished like young otters, prone to making grand splashes and deigning to chase fish under water at great lengths. However, unlike the usual young otter at this time of year, they both seemed successful. The otter on the log was interruted when the kingfisher dove into the water nearby, the otter jumped off the log in fright and surfaced snorting, then went back to the log and picked up the fish and continued maticating it. One otter, the one looking most like a pup, went up on the lodge and into the grasses there, as if to take a snooze, but never stayed more than a minute, always joining the other for fishing. A month ago I had briefly seen a mother and pup in this pond, and this could have been them. One of the otters swam all the way to the dam. I couldn't see what it did, but it swam right back to the lodge. This was a bit of checking on things that I wouldn't expect a pup to do. They sometimes fished together but didn't play together. Only once did one try to steal the fish of the other. In the fall of 1998 I saw a mother and one pup several times and was struck by how unpup like the only child was. Plus one of these otters was indefatigable in its fishing, and pups usually don't have that degree of concentration. Finally they both fished around the dam and the bank beaver lodge. This is where that mother and pup I saw a month ago seemed to orient themselves, and today one marked the bank above the lodge. When I couldn't see them along the portion
of the dam closer to me, I thought of climbing the bank to see if they were worrying the bird bones, but I decided to hold my ground because if they swam along the shore I would get a perfect picture. They didn't, but I still had a perfect two hours of
otter watching. They highlighted all the otter techniques from porpoising to chewing on the run (or on the swim,) to fishing around clumps of grass and tree trunks. They were often up on logs
and did some magical bobbing up and down with their tails swinging like a metronome. Subsequent kingfisher dives didn't seem to rattle them. Eventually they swam close to me,
and of course, the closer they get the faster they seem so I really see less while seeing more. Once one sniffed in my direction. Of course the whole time a light wind was in my face, and I assume that my being so close to the
odiferous otter scats helped mask my odor when a shifting gust might have blown it to the otters. A couple of times one, at least, made a great point of swimming a long distance under water, which I feared was out of alarm for me, but each time it
surfaced and continued fishing as before. In a sense I remained delightfully trapped since I didn't want to leave when the otters might see me and take alarm. The smaller one went back to the lodge and really nestled down for a snooze, and I was about to go when I saw the other swimming in the pond. Finally they both foraged behind the lodge, and I took my leave. When I looked back I saw that they were both on the lodge. I was plain to see but they didn't show any alarm. I checked the bird remains to see if they might have toyed with them. I think one bone had been moved.
The entrails were still there. I decided to hurry off to Audubon Pond on the trail on the chance that I might see the family of three, which would answer many questions, but the pond was quiet with no new scats at the causeway crossover.
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