September 11 to 19, 2001

September 11 at dinner time I went out to check on the beavers on a
pleasant, crystal clear evening; a gentle contrast to the terrorist attacks 7 hours away on another island just off the mainland US. I sent a doe and a fawn scurrying as I went behind the golf course. I took the route that leads more directly to the Big Pond. As I came down the ridge toward the ponds, a large bird flew off a tree and stayed low as it flew away -- I thought it might be an owl. I sat on my usual perch beside the Big Pond dam, a cat bird behind me, and then blue jays began congregating across the pond and suddenly that big bird flew off the top dead limbs of a tree, across the pond, light brown with white under the wings. More blue jays congregated across the pond, quite active, and chattering, but not unduly alarmed. The beaver lodge seemed larger and I decided to wait as long as I could to see a beaver, expecting to see one swim out of the lodge. At about 6:30, one appeared in the middle of the pond, on a line between me and the lodge.

It swam toward me with its nose working, got fairly close, say
twenty yards, then dove, I waited for it to resurface, but it didn't. There is a
good channel going through the grasses to the south shore of the pond, but I doubted it went that a way. I crossed the dam looking for otter signs. No scat, but possibly a slide at the dam coming out of the pond. Then I noticed a beaver at the far end of the pond swimming toward me. The trail going to the woods on the north side of the pond is more worn down and even a little moist. The channel there now is a canal.

They are still lumbering down there. On the way to the Lost Swamp Pond, really on the Big Pond side of slope, there is some big lumbering, including a freshly downed poplar. Quite a trek for the Lost Swamp beavers to get there, and over a rocky patch. I really wanted to see one of the beavers up in the woods, but knowing these beavers work late in the morning, I wasn't confident. I waited about a half hour and then moved on, marveling at the beaten paths to the work west of the pond. The maple I had pushed over hadd been gnawed as if to cut a four foot segment off the end. The cut was only a third of the way through the log. The mid part of the Second Swamp Pond is losing water fast. It was getting dark when I got to Otter Hole Pond, which is also quite low. But I saw what I wanted. A beaver swam out from the lodge and drifted in the darkness on the other side. And just as I decided that the muskrats might have fled the pond, one came tailing out of the east end of the lodge -- the beavers generally come out of the west end. Then back to watching the horror on TV.

September 12 On a bright warming morning I went off in the boat to the Audubon Pond, primarily to see if the otters might have gone there. I saw this stunning view of a clam sticking up in the water:

I did find one scat probably a few days old on a rock overlooking the best den on the west side of the pond. No other sign since the many tracks in the mud looked more like raccoon tracks. The beavers left a large leafy branch outside the entrance to the lodge.

I did flush the green heron, also working the muddy flats of the
shore. I decided to take the high road along the cliff to the north of Meander Pond, hoping to see how much of that canal was really useable. The leaves in the tall trees blocked a good view. From that angle the channel looks so small, but right at the foot of the cliff a large oak has recently been felled. I crossed over to the East Trail and was going to my usual otter watching perch, when I noticed that the upper East Trail Pond still had water. So I went over to check the rocks above the lodge for scats. I did find some thin, black, hard scats, with some scales, no berries. Otter scats, I thought, though anemic ones. A more lively indication of otters were impressions in the muck below that looked like parallel otter strides.

I decided that this huge, shallow, grassy area might be perfect for the young otters. Then I heard a splash at the lodge, and had great hopes that it would amount to more than just a large turtle, but it didn't. Then I went over to the otter watching perch, and not there ten minutes (after sending two score ducks off) I saw two critters swimming toward the lodge. That was like otters but they didn't dive like otters. I soon saw that they were beavers, one large and one small. This was at about 10:15 am. I thought of my adage that daytime beaver means otter trouble, but these beavers did not look vigilant. The little one climbed up on logs and munched away on grass

and the big one swam further afield, also feeding. I patrolled the shore for otter scats. There were none in their old rolling areas, then on a neat little mossy rock shelf I found three thin, black scats. This could have been a raccoon latrine too, but a few yards on there were the typically thick and smooth raccoon scats.

Near the dam I saw that the beavers had scraped up some leaves and made a scent mark on the shore - near where I'd expect to find otter scat. Then at the trail up the ridge to Otter Hole Pond, again where otters had scatted before, I found more thin, black scats. I poked into these with tweezers and found scales, grass and while they were fairly hard, I did see drops of black liquid and eventually the whiff of the typical otter scat. My guess is that the otters, ignoring the many frogs, are just getting the small fish found in drying pools throughout the pond. In capturing them, they also gobble up a good bit of leafy matter and thus their scats are better formed, and have leaf parts in them. Well, to prove this I have to see the otters scat and then see the scat. Back to the boat, with much to ponder.

September 14 I set off in the chill morning to see if I could figure out what the otters are up to. I went directly to the East Trail Pond, sliding down the large rock to a comfortable grassy seat. There were no beavers out and with the wind in my face I didn't scare off any ducks. Half of them sunned on logs, the others cruised gracefully in the green pond weed sheen of the pond. The green around the dam is dissipating, but it remains in the east end beyond the lodge. Unseen until it flew off was a green heron that had been below me. A blue heron flew over. So there are still fish in this pond -- no kingfisher however. When do they leave? October 27 according to the book. Then, the great excitement of the day, four ravens, seemingly small for that species, flew gracefully over me, not only rolling their "r's", but with such definitive flaps of the wings, like scythes cutting the grain. They circled perhaps in some pattern two by two, and moved slowly off to the west. The smell of me excited such anticipation in them. No otters appeared, so I went down to the dam and saw no new scats, either of the traditional otter variety or the new breed. Then I went to that little shelf where I saw questionable scats. Today there were fresh, small, definitely raccoon scats. Then I went to the rocks at the northwest end of the pond, overlooking their ferny lodge there. No fresh scats,
and I managed to get onto the lodge which had a liberal spread of raccoon droppings. Still quite beautiful down there from the spagum moss to the ferns and willows,

pity no button bush. I begin seeing bur marigold popping up in
various cracks.

Then I hurried down to East Trail to the New Pond. I have not really investigated this and I was wondering if the otters were raiding the remaining pool there. I almost could not find the lodge, now surrounded by the yellow bur marigold heads. All is dry there but the entrance does not look inviting for my young lodge explorers. The pond bottom shows in places were roots have been dug around. A huge chunky log was in the middle of the old channel to the lodge, and the channel itself a sinuous green.

I walked along the dam and saw only raccoon scats, and along the
pond on a clean log ideal for scatting, only the raccoons had taken advantage. The Porcupine Hotel Pond is dry; to my surprise the Beaver Point Pond pool remains as a puddle with pollywogs still swimming in it. Up at Otter Hole Pond, a heron flew off from the "deep" channel beside the lodge. This old friend is so slow, I feel obliged not to say how low it is. Yet here and there freshly stripped logs left by the beavers. I checked the rock dens which seem unused. The Second Swamp pond has just about had it, nothing stirring there. I wished for the old days at the Lost Swamp -- not even ducks there, no scats; but in the water I could see many little fish. The beavers seem to have let off on the area where they climbed the poplar and are instead felling poplars even farther from the pond down up the valley from the end of the pond.

The drought has forced them to go farther from the pond, and by doing so they once again taste a favorite food that they hadn't harvested around this pond for a few years. Walking up to the dam, I heard a strange squeaky croaky kind of call from the grass. I walked in and nothing came out. The beavers have come out on that seemingly sterile shore. At the dam I looked for scats and here I saw raccoon scats flecked with fish scales, or could they be skunk scats? The water is so low that looking at the lodge near the dam, the curiosity is, why did the beavers build it so close to solid rock?

Nothing much doing at the Big Pond except there was a big beaver cut log on path down to the pond. The new lodge looks bigger but not that big when you stand right next to it. also checked on the Middle Pond which still has a pool, perhaps enough water to survive until the next rain. And up on the ridge I came up three deer, bringing them up from their knees. Some coats are getting winter colors.

September 16 Yesterday I had a fine sail around Grinnell Island. There were many cormorants fishing throughout the route and my progress was lively enough to get them all up into the air. Today I took the motor boat over to the Audubon Pond in the mid-morning. I startled a muskrat as I walked along the causeway. I walked around the pond, sitting for awhile. The walk revealed a possible otter print in the mud, and a possible but unlikely otter scat -- unlikely because it was too tubular. I'm wondering now if some of these smaller tubular scats with insect parts in them are skunk scats. Perhaps the drought has brought more of them down to the ponds. The music as I sat on the bench came from the blue jays and their chorus, at time raucous at times with brief but fine melodies, accompanied me for the rest of the day. I decided to walk up the ponds above Audubon going along the south shores. The first pond up still has water and evidence that the beavers have been up there, back harvesting the ash they were working on late last fall, and also little willow sticks in the pond. The pond was so shallow I could walk along the shore below the rocks.

The water dried up below the next dam and then it was dry all the way up to the pool below the Short-cut Trail Pond. One of those ponds was just losing its last bit of water and several polywogs were struggling to survive.

Finding water below the bridge below the Short-cut trail pond was new. It had been dry. Short-cut Trail pond is quite low but I saw that there was fresh beaver work in it. I also saw a raccoon sact laced with glittering shells bits.

Then as I stood on the dam who should swim out but a beaver, far
enough for me to see its nose.

Then it ducked back. I guessed that the beavers in Meander Pond had moved down and moved into the lodge and the holes they fashioned led to some water leaking out below the dam. I walked up to the Meander Pond, and what a glorious walk it was. The dry channel formed the path and all around were bur marigolds humming with bees, and I also herded the usual sparrows.

At Meander Pond, I found evidence of the beavers' last stand, not only with my eyes. One boot went through the ground into a pool of water below a little over a foot deep. But the channels the beavers had lived in were now almost dry. I found the lodge they had used, about ten yards west of the one I had seen the other day. Near the lodge they were using were three recently deepened trenches and what may have been a tunnel from one to the canal leading to their most recent work on shore.

Incredible work [outside my window at 11:50 the screech owl is
singing and a quite beautiful, plaintive sound it is, tailing off into a short cry] and my guess is that they saw less need to connect the trenches then to continue to deepen them, but I might have to rethink that idea. Then I went to the rock over the East Trail Pond, to dry out and look for otters. I scared off quite a few ducks, and saw no otters. Then I checked the shore for scats and saw none. I did see the type of beaver work that always intrigues me -- downed and gnawed logs set at angles near the ground. Blue Jays were here too as well as chickadees and nuthatches. The ducks I saw were all wood ducks.

September 18 cloudy morning with a little bit of rain, then a mild day. Hoping to take advantage of the calm, I kayaked to South Bay but an east wind came right up. Still I had a good view of things in South Bay. I verified the coontail is indeed freefloating. I pulled out some other samples of grass but haven't identified them yet. There was a large flock of geese, and also a couple or three large areas where the grasses in the water would uprooted. Probably the wild celery. I also saw large patches of wildcelery still intact. With the east wind the bay was rather shallow and I couldn't get down to the cove where I see the suspected bryosoans. I flushed two herons, one very angry. The geese stayed put but a few ducks flew away. On the north side of the point I saw many shells, and many quite alive, along the rocks in the water, both snails and clams. I will get back there soon and get some photos of them. I went half way down the Narrows, and saw a few perch, and went back a little ways into the other cove, but I didn't want to disturb a large flock of geese in there. Then, against a brisk wind, I had a good paddle back home. Not as many cormorants fishing today.

This evening I went out to check on the beavers. On my way to the East Trail Pond I kept passing deer, beginning with two bucks, with smallish racks, up on the TIP plateau.

Half the deer are getting their winter coats. Going around South Bay, a heron was crouched into the water. As I came down to the East Trail pond, five deer started, two came right toward me as I stood atop a large granite slope. When they realized their mistake they stopped dead still, then when I moved, tried another direction and got away. At the East Trail pond, a heron flew off and then all was quiet save for some chattering birds, blackbirds and their buddies, over on the far side. Finally a little before 7, a beaver came out of the lodge, swam toward the dam where I was, then swam all the way back to the lodge, making a bit of an underwater run along the way. Then it headed off to the far end of the pond. Then another beaver came down, close to me, then back around the pond. And, at the same time, I saw another beaver surfacing near the lodge and then swimming to the far end. No splashing; no alarms; but I heard no gnawing either. I checked the trail to Otter Hole Pond for otter scat and saw none. As I came down to Otter Hole Pond, and it was getting dark, I saw two heads in the water, probably beavers but could have been muskrats. Then I saw beavers, two, in the water swimming to the shallow end of the pond. This pond, long my favorite, is ridiculously low and the beavers go to the shallow end. I seem to get a constant lessons from these critters on the virtues of having the bottom of your pond at your finger tips. In the gloaming I saw quite a bit of new work, including a large red oak down. I'll get pictures in the day. I
crossed Beaver Point Pond, not almost dark, and a deer was out there grazing.

September 19 took Leslie over via the boat to see the developments in Meander Pond. First we walked around Audubon Pond and I saw some more scaly otter scat on the rock over the muskrat burrow and one small black scat no bigger than a squirt. No other signs of otters however. Meanwhile a heron was rather tame, staying in the pond fishing as we walked around it. As it walked in the shallow water, when it wanted to get down closer to the water, it bent its lower leg forward and lowered its body so that its claws were out in front. In the trees and bushes of the northwest corner we saw some migrating warblers, and a junco. (But the only good photo I could get was of a goldfinch launching thistle seeds)

At the Short-cut Trail pond we could hear the beavers mewing in the dam, which is now their lodge. The pool below the dam, which the bridge crosses, is quite full

and water is even leaking further down the stream. These beavers
prefer the deeper pool to the wider pond. We took some photos of the pond with the 35mm camera. I still don't think the photos will capture the beavers' achievements at Meander Pond. Then we walked over to the New Pond -- last winter the otters showed me an easy short-cut, and we took some photos of the dry beaver lodge framed by bur marigolds. Warm day, and we swam off the dock. Tonight, rain to begin momentarily.