September 2 a cold front came through so on a cloudy cool morning I set off through the meadow. I heard a deer start and then just off the creek I saw a doe. I followed the deer trails up to the apple tree and had an apple - tastier than the last one I had from this tree. As I went up the ridge I was face to face with a buck sporting a good rack of antlers.
But he didn't quite seem like the guy I usually see. I took a step forward and three other deer started and ran down the hill. The buck kept staring at me. When he did move he walked along and then up the ridge; as I climbed up the ridge too, I was pretty sure I saw another buck with full antlers. Then when we were all atop the ridge I got a fleeting glance of both bucks before they ran off. So the bucks want to run with each other - let the family hide and take care of themselves. On the ridge I flushed another deer. Not many birds up there and not as many mushrooms. No trumpets at the usual spot. I sat above the Middle Pond - watching the heron fly off from the upper shallows. The pond looked like muskrats had been feeding in and around it - that muddy, trampled down by little bodies look; but I know ducks have been coming into the pond. Finally I saw some bubbles, a nose, then a head and a finally a tiny muskrat. No sooner did I see it than it dove and swam under water back to its lodge. A little later I saw it or another rat come out and stay up a little longer. Perhaps the fewer the babies the less bold they are in their first solo feeding. A kingfisher also flew in and I was actually closer to it than usual. Kingfishers are so familiar you don't notice that they are pretty careful about staying a good distance from you. The Double Lodge Pond is still holding a good amount of water. There were no fresh otter signs beside the dam. As I walked along the dam (the deer and I have made a pretty good trail now) I saw some prints that might have been from otters. The other night I saw beavers cruising near the dam. Today at one point I saw a little pile of willow sticks that a beaver had left just on the downside of the mud dam. As I got to the other end of the dam I came upon a snapping turtle feeding in the shallow water.
I couldn't say it fled but as it turned and dove into the mud it didn't lift its nose up for a good picture. It began to rain lightly so I hurried up to the Lost Swamp which was filled with geese, from one end to the other. Goose season has started and so a couple hundred had hidden here from the sportsmen. I saw one or two ducks and not much else as the rain got harder and I heard thunder. Worst of all there was a cold wind and I had to move to keep warm. I checked all possible otter scatting sites and then at the good old north shore I found more fresh scats. It didn't look like there was a trail up the hill, but I followed what might have been one, which soon went cold. There is water in the little pond of the upper Second Swamp and it looked a little muddy. I went down to it and then walked up a possible trail. I've noticed this before and examined it. This time right at a place where an old stump has been dug out by animals I saw fresh otter scats. So the question became, were the otters going to or leaving the Lost Swamp. I went back to that pond to ponder that and decided from the look of the grass that they were coming. I sat, but the wind, rain and thunder persuaded me to move on to Otter Hole. No otters or otter signs there, or at Beaver Point and the rain stopped as did the wind so I could linger there to wait for developments. The water in Beaver Point is low, a good two feet down if not more, and with the high vegetation on the dam the pond almost looks as woebegone as Otter Hole. I also saw what looked like two freshly stripped logs floating near the dam lodge.
Are the beavers thinking about moving back? I also got down to more closely examine the little flat area of shore line just up from the rock cliff. It looks like a deer had been down there browsing. It left its card. Perhaps the fawns were there. I went up to look down into the porcupine hotel and I could see by the flattened vegetation that something has been there. And soon enough I saw some generous dollops of fresh otter scats.
I let out some snorts, but got no reply. So, otters (for everywhere there had been more than one scat) had been through and I had missed them again! My theory now is that the high water in the river makes the reeds there more hospitable. When the water level in the river goes down, the reeds become less inviting and the otters move into the ponds. Let's hope so. The water is also down in the New Pond - at least a foot. The question now is how much dredging the beavers have been doing. On the South Bay trail I saw caterpilars, of the tussock milkweed moth, devouring one milkweed plant.
As usual there were signs that something had scooted from the bay into the creek. I went up the creek a little ways, and it is at a trickle. Any otter coming through would only have memories of that bullhead run to eat.
September 3 I left a little before 9:30, via boat, to check the ponds for otters. I docked at the usual spot - water still not low enough to cause trouble. A cloudy morning with a light east wind, so it was quiet where I was. Well, I didn't see any otters and I confess that depressed me. I did see otter scats at the East Trail Pond, and I take comfort with the thought that the otters now are going every where I go. We will bump into each other! And I saw other things: another stripped log at Beaver Point dam. As I got up on the ridge to the Lost Swamp and trapped three deer down along the Second Swamp pond, and noticed that one had quite a change in coat, another was starting to change and the other's still was reddish. The osprey was up at the Lost Swamp. There is so much scat there that it is difficult to tell if there is any fresh scat. But I could smell the scat, and some looked fresh - though nothing gooey, or, piping hot, as I like to say. And then the grass at the edge of the pond looks like it has been gone through several times. I walked up to the dam and saw no otter signs up there. In the Second Swamp, the dying blue vervain was all tangled with a lively vine. I've noticed the deer like munching on vines - why not this one?
Crossing the upper Second Swamp I admired the contrast between the dark green of the cedars, and the light green, the spring green, of the birch. The flow through this swamp is lessening and at the pool where I had seen schools of little healthy fish, there was a film on the surface and one dying shiner.
I walked along the edge of the swamp as I headed for the East Trail pond. Saw a gold finch give a thistle the business, fluff in the beak and then spit that out and get to the seed. Also knee high in the grass was a beautiful bees' nest about the size of the duckpin ball.
I got another angle on the ducks lazing in the pond water; they flew off as I climbed the rocks overlooking the end of the pond. And then I heard an owl hoot right behind me. My first impression was that it was a Great Horned. Then it went hoot - hootiddy - hoot hoot, and I wondered if that might be a call of the Great Gray (No) - since this was the same patch of woods I saw that owl in. It sang again and I strained to see it - no luck. Call that the Owl Woods. I also flushed ducks off the East Trail Pond, and then saw fresh otter scat on the north shore and a little ways up the hill to Otter Hole Pond. I left my own scat on that hill. No otters; a few ducks; the New Pond is getting shallow and when I walked up to it (one could easily walk onto it thanks to a log connecting shore and lodge)
a beaver swam out and stayed underwater so long I didn't see it. The poor things must be moving up to the dam lodge. Much work on the trees down there. A fresh tree down at the end of the pond. Tomorrow night I hope to check this out. In the green muck at the end of the South Bay cove there were trails through, several - could otters have done that? I also saw some nice berries, on trees and Jack in the Pulpit,
and on the East Trail dam a stalk of a purple loosestrife knocked down and the flowers half eaten.
September 4 I remain obsessed with seeing the otters! Rainy morning and then it stopped and although it was the mid-day time which has not been lucky for otter watching, I headed off. My object was to check the Short-cut Trail and Audubon ponds to see if there were any otter signs there (and in the back of my mind was the recollection that years ago I twice saw otters in that neck of the woods.) I detoured up to the ridge overlooking Beaver Point pond - I might be lucky, but I wasn't. I saw two groups of people walking dogs - without leashes. So perhaps the otters were taking care. So much for what I didn't see. Just off the TIP Nature Trail I saw an array of deer showing a nice variation in fur coloring.
One was gone gray or blue; a fawn was still in bright summer coat; and two more adults seemed mostly red. I saw more tussock moths doing their bit against the milkweed. The plant I saw them on yesterday was completely stripped.
But no great infestation of them - 1 in 100 plants with a caterpillar on it, if that many. The Short-cut Trail pond was remarkably full and the ponds below were not bad either. The Audubon lodge didn't look used but it wasn't as overgrown as I thought it might be. The lodge on the causeway has one stripped stick near it. Some stripped logs bobbing the upper pond. Two kingfishers battling. I paused at the South Bay cove to see a heron studying the shallows where the otter had been. My plan for today was to go out in the late afternoon and check out the beavers in the New Pond - did I mention that I saw some stripped willow branches where I docked the boat along South Bay yesterday? The New Pond is low - all the ponds in that chain but the Lost Swamp and East Trail ponds are low. Were beavers moving out? But I still wanted to see otters. So I went out at about 4, heading across the meadow up to the ridge. I saw a deer, a young buck with spikes, browsing under the apple tree. When I came up, he moved off slowly and when I got my apple, he was still looking at me from a short distance. With a great flourish I left two apples behind for him. By now it was a beautiful cool day with bright sun and a brisk wind - white seeds were blowing in many places - no leaves yet. As I stood at the end of the Big Pond dam, I saw way in the distance of the Big Pond, through the binoculars, a diving duck. I first thought of loon, than cormorant; it was brown and thin, no doubt a merganser. The wind was rather fierce playing across the Lost Swamp. The osprey rose to fish and when it tried to hover over the Lost Swamp pond, was blown smartly to the Big Pond. The ducks found places out of the wind. One group of 8 hung out on a log just across from me. No otters, nor signs of otters. The ducks in the Second Swamp pond were not their usually lollygagging selves. They seemed flocked up ready to go somewhere and my arrival prompted them to do just that. I paused at Otter Hole Pond to watch a heron fish right near the stream that goes through the hole in the dam. There was also a heron on the other side of the dam. The number of herons in these ponds is a good testament as to how shallow they've become. I got down to the New Pond at about 5:30 and sat on the west slope of the porcupine hotel. I couldn't say there was fresh otter scat there, but I could get a whiff of otter scat. Nothing stirred in the hotel, nor up at the dam where I was speculating the beavers might be thinking of relocating. Nothing swam up and I couldn't see any beavers by the New Pond dam. I got to worrying, but when I climbed the ridge just above the dam and looked on the other side, I saw the beavers out - at least four of them, going about their business. Another tree with green leaves was down and one and then another beaver were plucking and munching the leaves. Another nipped off a little branch and dragged that back to the lodge. If there is method in their operation, their idea seems to be to get as much as they can out of the shallow reaches of the pond while there was still water there. One muncher demonstrated how important the sense of sight is to beavers. A large leaf was plastered on one side of its head, covering one eye.
It kept munching oblivious to any handicap. When it dove it didn't shake the leaf off. Now it hung under its ear. Anyway, the beavers in the New Pond did not seem at all panicked.
I hurried home for dinner. Perhaps a longer stay with the beavers tomorrow night. Chill is in the air, though I'm sure it will be warm again soon.
September 5 we kayaked over to South Bay first thing in the morning - cold morning, below 50 and still some wind so the white water lily flowers were not out. But we saw a fox family in the rock area in the middle of the point. A few weeks ago I saw a couple of white masses in the water which I first thought were some egg mass - but it seemed so heavy, I figured it was a waterlogged bees nest. Now there are similar masses all over the shallows - some big, some small. Obviously not bees nests, but I don't know what they are. Then coming out we saw a green heron. It stood on a bent over willow and didn't fly off, just jumped further into the tree. It was light brown, almost tan, yellow legs, no pronounced tail and I thought had a beak shaped more like a seagulls - for picking, than a heron's for stabbing. After dinner we motored over - wind calm, still cold - to check on the beavers. We only saw two. None at first, then a big one came down from the p-pine hotel area, and swam right under us, and over to the tree they were working on yesterday - they had stripped much bark off it - the big guy parked himself at the base of the tree and munched tidbits. I could only hear the other beaver, gnawing at the far end.
September 6 another beautiful cold morning and I set off for the ponds somewhat avoiding the tall wet grass. What deer I saw seemed adjusted to the new season - fleeing quickly, no more stopping and staring. I just glanced at the Middle Pond and crossed the Double Lodge Pond dam. The geese were congregating in the middle of the Big Pond. They proved jumpier than usual up at the Lost Swamp Pond. The geese, who are being shot at, flew off, most of the ducks remained - not many ducks at that. No morning beavers; no muskrats nor otters either; few birds. Something always fills the temporary void and this morning it was red squirrels gathering food and negotiating territory. And then there is the change in season best exemplified by the rattling of seeds, and dying back of weeds; figworts sporting snowballs. I mused that the deer had stopped browsing into the pond and then in the distance I saw a deer browsing into the pond. No new otter scats. On the way to Otter Hole Pond I picked up a traveler
and felt foolish when I flicked a walking stick off my neck thinking it was a real stick. Otter Hole pond is about as low as it gets, and the ditto for Beaver Point pond.
Just below the dam a heron was hunched on a log like a vulture examining the dying pond.
I got a good picture of it flying off. I thought I saw an otter scat on the log by the hole so I went out on the dam jostling the crowd of figworts, not a few bigger than me. There was still a line of button bushes pushed just off the dam. The deer are still crossing, though, and I followed their path. At the sticks now bridging the hole there was a not too old otter scat. And then the area across the hole where the four or more holes into the dam are was without vegetation. Plus as I stood above those four holes I got a whiff of otter scat. The lovelies have been there recently too.
Imagine seeing four otters pop out of those holes at once! There were shiners swimming in the two feet deep water near the hole. Beaver Point Pond is so low that land is appearing below Otter Hole Dam. I thought it might be solid but my boot went in a good foot down in mud. Then I sat on the perch at the porcupine hotel. Nothing below to report and one bird I couldn't quite get the make of. One the way home I saw a figwort going to seed that made me stop and stare. There was a spot of yellow atop the ball of white.
Here then was a figwort bloom.
September 7 I went off at 5:30pm and got to the New Pond by 6. I snuck up expecting the beavers to be at the end, and they were. A southwest wind was blowing away the chill, and the beavers seemed as eager as me to re-experience summer warmth. So while on the cold night with Ottoleo and L, we saw just two beavers, tonight I saw five virtually at once, and there were probably six or seven around. That other night the young ones must not have wanted to brave the chill. Tonight they were all about. I heard gnawing straight away and kept straining through the trees to see who was doing it. Then I noticed a little beaver floating in the water right before me looking up at me. (Later I searched for gnawing, hadn't learned my lesson and again a little beaver was below me its instrument cocked for music)
This was very much a young beaver on its own learning the ropes. It went to the freshly stripped log lying at a low angle above the pond, and tried to hoist itself up to gnaw the bark like its betters
- that didn't work. It tried to swim under the log and twist around to get its mouth on the underside of the log - that didn't work. It went to the end of the log, sat briefly, and then dove deeply and came up with a snout full of vines and leaves but also with something to chew on.
It didn't seem to get real satisfaction until it clutched a big leaf and gobbled that. Soon enough a big beaver swam by me to my right, tail cocked and nose up.
It wanted to smell me and when it did it splashed twice. This got no rise out of anybody else. One small beaver swam over right below me to see what the fuss was.
Yet these were busy beavers. It was not like last year in the Big Pond when the four little beavers seemed to dare each other one after another to see who could get closer to me. The little beavers were intent on collecting branches. But they kept breaking off the branches of a long dead tree. There was no gnawing necessary, just reach up, break it off and carry it to the lodge. Almost the whole time I was there a large beaver gnawed by the lodge, with sometimes one mewing small one beside it, and sometime two.
I did see a beaver go off on land in the distance. There was no nook at that end of the pond that a beaver didn't poke into. The activity of the little ones made the two larger beavers, or perhaps there was a third, seem especially sluggish. A couple of times I saw beavers swim to the right of me, once a large one with a small one tagging behind. The beaver I recognize as the policeman of the bunch (that is, policing me) is a two year old I think. It swam vigorously. So with seeing beavers and hearing more, I was quite enchanted. Finally I saw five beavers: three by the lodge and two in the pond in front of me. I had seen other beavers swim off to the other end of the pond. So I moved quietly over there to see what I could see. Nothing. Save one beaver that may have been there - I saw it swimming back to the lodge. Beaver Point pond and Otter Hole pond were quiet. The Lost Swamp pond was golden placid. Then I saw the bright break in the water near the lodge. A beaver was out and like before, began swimming straight toward me.
While I trained my camera on it, I heard a splash beside me and a muskrat swam out from the shore beside me where it had been feeding and motored back to his lodge.
The beaver kept coming, passed the muskrat and came close enough to hunch up out of the pond and give me the once over. My odor must have been disarming because the beaver stayed and munched a bit right before. Then another beaver came out from the lodge and it too came toward me, but got detoured by a snack on the way. It was getting dark. On the ridge behind me a young spiked buck watched the watcher
until I moved and it leaped away into the dark woods. In the gloaming the otter scats on the north shore looked different and perhaps more moist. I had the feeling there were fresh scats about. But there is so much there it is hard to tell. Before I went on the hike I had spent the afternoon cutting cedar logs for the shack on the land. My shirt and pants were stained with aromatic cedar. Is that why I was such an attraction to the beavers? The only thing to mar the evening was that, all the while, some moron of a goose hunter was blasting away every two minutes down on in the river.
September 10 I went off in the morning to check on the ponds. No deer in the meadow. I had an apple and noticed another apple tree back there. I should get out for some serious apple picking. There were flocks of small birds up on the ridge, as well as a towhee and deedees. I crossed at the Double Lodge Pond (didn't check on the Middle Pond) and up on the Big Pond saw a small gathering of geese and the usual two herons flying off. I scanned the pond but no otters. The Lost Swamp pond was quite full of geese - a couple hundred easy. With so many geese, there is a continuous flow of honking. First one gaggle does it, then another. Moments of quiet must embarrass the geese because someone of them soon start honking again. I kept seeing ducks here and there and dutifully checked out every ripple and sunning turtle. No otters, nor muskrats. I even played the recorder a bit. I decided not to go up and check the point where the otters were wont to go - didn't want to get the geese started. I did check the mossy cove just to the west.
First the smell hit me and then I saw otter scat all over. One scat had a bit of skin that I fancied was frog skin, but I'm hardly qualified to even make a guess.
Evidently the family, for there was that much scat, had been there and recently. So I sat a little further down and, with a good view of both lodges, waited for an otter to appear. To pass the time I tried to think where five otters might den. Was the old lodge big enough? Would the beavers in the newer lodge allow them inside? Were they in the big lodge in the other end of the pond? Or the many bank dens that muskrats had made? But not seeing any otters, I couldn't answer the questions. So I continued on around the pond. Only two small fresh scats on the north shore. I glanced over at the Second Swamp, but those ponds are losing water. This was a very hot and humid day and I didn't want to go far. Otter Hole pond is very low. I waited for a ripple to materialize into something. Nothing. Then six ducks flew off and I still think ducks avoid otters. I checked the shore by the dam and then Beaver Point pond shore for otter signs - nothing. That left the Porcupine Hotel. I got up to the low vantage that gives a look down and saw much crushed vegetation. I got the whiff
of scat and the otter snort at about the same time.
Well, the game was afoot. The otter trying to snort me away and me hoping the otter or otters would come out. I did hear a different otter noise - a purring growl. Then I heard a screeching noise and wondered if other otters were making an escape while the snorter kept me occupied. I went up to the top of the rocks. The screeching continued below. I got closer and saw a porcupine down in the hotel, as it were.
So I went back to the standoff with the otter. I finally noticed where it was snorting. I could see its nose sticking out of a small gap between the rocks. I moved some grass hoping to improve my sight line and when I did that, an otter splashed out of some water. So it's possible there were more than one otter there, the snorter and some pups trying to lay low. I waited a while longer taking as much video of its nose as I could! Yes, I tried to sweet talk the otter out, but it wisely didn't fall for that.
September 12 went out in the early afternoon of a humid day with a shower threatening and I felt drops when I got to the TIP ridge. We had a half inch of rain the day before and the level of the New Pond looked a little higher. I sat up on the porcupine hotel and today there was no otter snorting and no porcupine screeching. So often in the woods everything seems to happen at once. The tree frogs and peepers were singing. I got a good view of some phoebes. The grass below Beaver Point dam looked trodden upon. This area is popular with deer so I can't blame otters, though I think the dam lodge would be a good place for otters to den. Did I mention that a heron flew off? All quiet up to Otter Hole pond. When I got to the Lost Swamp it began to rain in earnest. I sat under a leafy tree at the end of the pond. I saw some wild splashing up at the far end. Not having binoculars I couldn't tell if it was geese or perhaps otters. Probably not otters. Soon I saw three small ducks and one large one that dove in the water. The small ones eventually came close; they too were divers, mergansers, and I saw one catch a shiner; their dives are quite lithe and effortless, and one dipped his head underwater as if to get a better view;
they also liked to rear up showing their white breast and flap their wings. A green heron was on a log in the same area where they were fishing. As for the large one - I saw it as a silhouette so when I saw it diving I wasn't fooled into thinking it was an otter. Then I saw the strangest sight - a stick moving vertically in the water
and then the stick dove with a big splash into the water! I saw this twice and the apparition moved toward the dam and never came back to the pond. Judging from the video, it was a cormorant. I thought I saw one in the Big Pond the other day. Meanwhile the shower came in earnest - warm rain still, waxing and waning with almost musical rhythm. After the clatter of the rain, the ensuing silence is so pregnant, every noise portentious. Twice I stopped to listen only to realize the noise came from my pack rubbing against my back. I went back the way I came in - a deer in the water at Otter Hole pond as well as several small blackish ducks. Front moving through now as I write at night - cool weather coming.
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