September 3 a little before 2 pm I headed off for a tour of the ponds. We had been away for Labor Day weekend so I had not been out to the ponds for five days. I didn't expect my luck with the otters to hold, but I decided to go to Otter Hole Pond first. Since I've been out we've had no rain, and perhaps there was no better sign of the dryness than a doe and two fawns heading for a garden right across the street. I shooed them into the small meadow below the golf course. This is a quiet time of year to hike save for the crickets and katydids. Coming down the ridge to South Bay I saw a small monarch butterfly.
I sat above Otter Hole pond for about twenty minutes, but no otters appeared on the lodge or in the pond. A kingfisher dove just behind the dam, and there were a few ducks about. On the way to check for otter scat beside the dam, I noticed that one of the standing red oaks seems to have been freshly girdled, with the reddish underbark exposed.
The otters have left quite a bit of scat on the rock by the dam and on a log. Some was fresher than others but none that I saw had been left that day. There was raccoon scat nearby, laced with berries.
I hiked up from the girdled tree but saw no other signs of beavers. I went up the ridge before I reached the Second Pond, aiming to get on the south side of the pond with raising any undo alarm, in case otters were out. That strategy did get me closer than usual to the osprey, perched on the usual dead limbs above the dam, but it was flying away before I could get my camera out. As I moved up to my usual rock, many ducks flew off, but some remained and the geese hardly fluttered. I got a brief glimpse of a muskrat going back in the middle lodge -- it gave a little flip of its tail as it dove in. A large doe was grazing along the far south shore. A flicker flew in and perched on a dead tree above. I heard but did not see a bluejay behind me. There was a threat of a storm but it blew by to the north. I didn't find any fresh scat at the otter latrine, nor on the north slope, though it looked like something had been up and down -- most likely deer. I also went out to the rock behind the lodge beside the dam, to see if the otters had imposed themselves that far on the beavers' territory. There was some old scat, but mostly berry-laced raccoon scats. To get back on my way I crossed below the dam and the pool there, now dry, is drenched in tall grasses.
Crossing the upper second pond dam I saw the first of my favorite yellow flowers, burr marigold.
This year the grass is so thick, and cutting on my ankles, that the flower might be over shadowed. Because of the sharp grass and a momentary threat of rain, I went up into the fringe of the woods on the north side of the Second Pond. There I found some asters and goldenrod together, and a dusty mushroom at the base of a tree, perhaps Ganoderma applanatum,
any mushroom is a rare sight. I made my way to the rock above the lodge, seeing old beaver work. I heard something in the grasses below and a doe and then a fawn leapt out. The latter seemed big and capable.Then I saw a big ripple in the pond, and a beaver poked its nose up. It dove once and came closer,
then dove again and I think beat a retreat rather than come to the lodge. Down below I admired their progress with the birch. This sculptured stump was surrounded by birch chips where the logs had been segmented.
All the logs had been taken to the pond. Some large birch remain, but the beavers are also taking small elms. Going up to the East Trail pond, I found one of the largest ground hog holes I've seen.
I saw overlooking the East Trail pond, and saw nothing but the wind playing on the water. To cross the dam I went below it hoping to see some cardinal flowers, no, but I saw these turtleheads
-- two plants blossoming in the wet creek where a little water still runs. Then when I came up to the other side of the dam, a woodcock flew off. I can never get a picture of this quick bird, but this time I could see where it had been searching for food.
There was no fresh otter scat; still I kept looking out to the pond. I took the high road to Beaver Point pond hoping to see otters down at Otter Hole Pond, but no such luck. A good size pool still remains behind Beaver Point dam,
and no sign of fresh otter scats. I flushed a large sparrow as I negotiated the dam. I even had to grab onto knotweed, let alone the fluffing pilewort to save myself from the sharp grass.
September 4 in the afternoon, I hiked out to complete my search for the otters. I had an uneventful walk around South Bay until I came up to the trail going up to Audubon Pond. The brown grasses everywhere had seemed useless to me. Imagine my surprise when two pileated woodpeckers and two flickers flew out of the grass beside the trail. I glanced down at the rock along South Bay and saw no otter scats. Audubon Pond is rather low, plus they mowed the grasses and milkweeds on the causeways. I saw a monarch butterfly inspecting the remains, and waited hoping to get a picture of it on a milkweed, but no luck. A heron sat on a stick out in the pond,
and a kingfisher came in do some fishing, but I saw no otters. I didn't see any fresh scat either but I did see some prints in the freshly exposed mud. I could almost walk out to the lodge.
Indeed there was a pool of water trapped behind the lodge where tadpoles were struggling. Someone, state park people I assume, patched the hole in the drain with a huge log,
but there is no rain in sight, much less the several downpours that are needed to fill ponds. The pond below Short-cut Trail pond is virtually dry. A fawn and doe feeding diverted me from closer inspection of the dry pond. The fawn
seemed to concentrate on the grasses at its feet,
but the doe's head was up and around after big leaves.
Even after they saw me they were no disposed to leave. Up just below the dam, I saw some old otter scat, but new to me, on the large log there. So the otters did have an eye for the easy pickings here. A small flock of goldfinches worked the thistle. Seeing so little water in these ponds, I was anxious as I approached Meander Pond. While kayaking I have seen beaver raids on some willow, and worried that this colony might have fled. As I approached several deer, does and fawns, leaped out of the lush grasses, obvious fans of the diminished pond. However,
there is still water behind the dam, a small pool quite muddy,
and much evidence of fresh beaver work across the pond. Four or five large trees have been girdled. Needless to say not a few felled trees remain unstripped, but who I am to criticize beavers as they survive the dry summer. There is also some water in the channels in the middle section of the pond, but I think the beavers are living near the dam. I decided to veer over to Otter Hole Pond, curious to see if the otters might be there. I sat by the dam for 15 minutes, heard some chirping but saw that it came from an osprey perched up in a dead tree -- the
same limb, I think, where I saw an osprey several days ago. Crossing Otter Hole dam is impossible, but I reasoned that if otters had been back they would have left their mark down at the pool behind Beaver Point Dam. I was right, there was gobs of
fresh scat that had not been there yesterday, by the shore and up on the first rocks above the shore.
Quite a smell too, and the water was very muddy. Only a sandpiper in the mud
and a sparrow in the tall grasses were active. I wondered if the otters were in the dam. I decided to use the old boards to cross the New Pond, but first I had to watch another fawn and doe slowly discover my arrival. Then I balanced
across logs and boards and made it across. No sign that any otters had been through, only innumerable bugs dancing on the green muck and slime on the surface of the remaining pond.
September 5 I took a quick kayak tour of South Bay before dinner. The small fish are jumping which always seems such an exclamation, small as it is, of summer's end. Of course, I was after bryozoa. I inspected the shells off the rocks at the point first. When the water gets lower I can see the colonies of the larger zebra mussel style clams. I did see one old fashion clam, and it behooves me to sort through the collection in a flatbottom boat. I wonder why they collect so well on these rocks. Before I got to the bryozoa zone I kept seeing the gobs of jelly every where, especially on the lilypads. I saw this my last time out so thought then that it might not be parts of the bryozoa. But today, I didn't see any healthy bryozoa and the one I did see was dissolving into a mass of loose jelly. To test this theory I went over to other side of the point in the cove where I had not seen any bryozoa. There was no jelly on the lilypads but I did find a little in some seaweed. There were many more little fish swimming around this time, including a few that were speckled. I flushed a heron that had something large in its beak, just a fish I suppose. I also saw a freshly stripped beaver stick floating out in the water. The drought may send more beavers here. The lilies are still blooming but more exciting are the bees and the graying masses of aphids all over the lily pads.
September 6 I went off on a chilly but warming morning, sunny and dry, of course. I went via the meadow behind the golf course, which was fairly dry despite the dew, with many paths beaten down. I didn't see any deer, however. I saw only one apple on the apple tree, but the tree up on the plateau seemed to have plenty. I heard a towhee, and another bird called that I couldn't see or identify -- sparrow-like. I began flushing some deer. I sat briefly in the shade along the crest of the other side of the hill, intrigued by sounds. One sounded like a frog trying some new riffs or a young bird forgetting all it had learned about its call in the last few weeks. Then I heard a loud whistling call, like a grosbeak's first call ever. Soon enough a blue jay from the same tree started jeering at me. Then a doe walked along a path just below me. I was surprised at how loud a sound she made when her hoof rattled a rock. I didn't tarry long at the Big Pond dam and as I walked along the apron of mud, I saw no sure otter signs. Beavers had left some work out in the water, and some freshly stripped logs were up on the lodge. The water was active with fry and pollywogs. The Lost Swamp Pond had more ducks, and once again the osprey was up in its usual tree. It flew off with a fish in its claws, chirping as it flew. I sat for 20 minutes, endured the chatter of red squirrels and chipmunks, and then moved around the pond to check for scat -- none. I didn't go to the dam because I wanted to go to Otter Hole Pond first since I think the otters are making that beaverless pond their happy home. On the way there, I looked at the beaver work along the Second Pond.
They are taking down more birch, clump by clump, tree by tree,
as well was small red oak. After the ducks flew off I noticed that Otter Hole pond seemed muddier than usual, and churned up. So I settled down to see if otters would pop out of the lodge. I cocked the monocular for a look down at the Beaver Point Pond pool and saw no action down there. A smaller osprey entertained me and a kingfisher was around. Bugs weren't safe either because there were several kingbirds too, as well as chickadees and downey woodpeckers. Then at 10:15 the three otters burst out of the dam and swam directly into the lodge.
I assumed they had just come up from fishing in Beaver Point Pond and wanted a rest before going out again. Several times I saw ripples around the entrance to the lodge near the one they went into, but no otters appeared. At 10:50, an otter came out of the other, the east end, of the lodge. Clearly a pup, it played with a stick in the water, did a little fishing and then crawled along the edge of the lodge and went back into from the west end. Then at 11:15 an otter came out of the north end of the lodge and did some bolder fishing,
but I think it was a pup, too. Though on their own the pups stayed close to the lodge. I was hoping the mother would soon go out for lunch and worked the pond below me, which has shrunk quite a bit. But it was a vain hope. At noon, the mother came out of the east end of the lodge, looking so big and placid that I thought for an instant that it was a beaver. She fished a bit, went around the lodge, and then up on it to scat. Then all three swam out purposefully out of the west end of the lodge, swam below me, and then disappeared, so fast that I can't lift a good still from the video.
I was prevented from following them immediately by a fawn who wondered down to the pond for a drink.
When I moved up pond, I could see a fresh trail through the pond weeds heading toward the Second Swamp. So I followed. Though I only saw two otters, I knew their mother was with them. Of course, I paused at the Second Swamp, but no otters were there. And at first I didn't see the otters in the Lost Swamp pond. Unfortunately, mom saw me before I saw her,
and chirping loudly she led the pups to the far east end of the pond. I followed them with the monocular and could see that the pups were fishing independently, and, I assume, with greater success. They went to the farthest shore of the pond, then came back toward the old lodge in that section of the pond.
I waited to see if they would come back to me, but they went back to the far end of the pond, I think, or they doubled back for a rest on the lodge on the side I couldn't see. So today, I think the otters woke up after dawn, fished Otter Hole Pond, and then went down to Beaver Point pool. Then they came back to Otter Hole Pond lodge for a nap of 100 minutes or so, and then swam up to the Lost Swamp for another hour or two of fishing. This is a nice rhythm for life, and it seems one thing has changed. Mom doesn't go off fishing alone, which would mean the pups are beginning to catch their own weight. My walk back home for a late lunch was uneventful, but don't let this report on otters obscure the main activity around the ponds -- the gathering of nuts.
September 8 I got to Beaver Point "pool", as I am calling it, at a little after 9am, and soon sent a heron squawking off toward Otter Hole Pond. I could see that the pool was muddy, so I assumed the otters had just been there. I eased on up to Otter Hole pond and saw fresh scat on the rock by the dam. As I took a picture of that, I heard a grunt off in the pond. I sat next to a gray stump under the shade of a pine and looked off into scraggily dead bushes in the middle shallows of the pond and watched the otters.
They were not quite doing serious foraging. Several times I saw one of the pups jump off a log; indeed, the grunting I heard was inspired by that playing. They did seem to get a good deal out of the pond. I saw bloody white bellies being worked by their jaws.
They looked too big to be pollywogs, and I saw no legs a-dangling, so I assume they were bullheads. Watching the pups try to eat one of these things was a chapter in itself. Chew chew chew, stuffing all the time with active paws. Then the pup swam off, head up, meal in mouth, trying to stay close to the other otters. I saw one possible feeding by the mother, and it seemed that one of the pups always tried to stay close to her.
I've always thought one of the pups was more capable than the other. I hoped they would swim over to me and come to the latrine just a few feet away, but no such luck. They swam to the lodge, perhaps scatted on the side I couldn't see, and were soon back in the water. This time they did come close to me, though not right in front of me, and I think the mother got a whiff of me. However, there was no alarm given by her. The two pups surfaced near the lodge, and one did some blowing, but not toward me. The pups went to the lodge, and one kept sitting up, looking up pond, with intensity, if not anxiety.
The mother had left them! I didn't see anything up pond, nor hear anything. After a few minutes of looking, both pups swam up pond and I soon lost them. I waited about ten minutes and then decided to go check the East Trail Pond. I was pretty sure I would have seen them if they had taken the channel going up to the Second Swamp pond. At the Mother of all dams, I could see that something had recently been over it, but I didn't think in the last few minutes. Then in the woods between that dam and the East Trail Pond, I heard some strange sounds: a chirp and then some fluting calls that seemed low to the ground. Well, those calls quickly moved up into the pines and the characteristic call of the blue jay mocked me again. I checked on the cardinal flower while going up to the East Trail Pond dam. The deer, I assume, had nipped some flowers, but not all. Still the same number of plants. At the dam a pileated woodpecker greeted me, and several wood ducks were creaking like rusty gates on the pond. I checked the path down from the ridge, and saw three or four fresh scats, very fresh, there was a bumble bee hovering in one glob, and ants were visiting too. In the little apron of mud leading into the pond, I saw two or three possible otter prints going into the water,
and many little toe marks which seemed more organized than the probing of a woodcock's beak (I had seen one there before.) I went up to the higher mossy rock where the otters had scatted here before; nothing there; still I sat a little above it and waiting. I was pleased to see some Sunday hikers noisily crossing the bridge across the pond, and then hiking on around the pond. I hoped this might flush some critters out of the shallow reaches of the pond, and perhaps it did, for ten minutes later the otters came out, foraging actively. They dove, dipped, swirled and swam right before me, and then came out of the water to scat right below me! Unfortunately a thick shock of dead beige grass was waving between me and them.
I took the chance of scaring them by getting up on my knees. That at least allowed me to see and video them. I am not sure they noticed me. They were due for a rest, and at first they were cuddling together, but rather quickly broke up and went about sniffing, and then scatting, then off into the water.
So I think they were just stopping here for a quick scat, and they did a little fishing
before they swam into their den at the other end of the dam. So, I think I saw the mother testing the pups, leaving them alone and forcing them to follow. Perhaps she was testing me too.... Many little things on the trails today, snakes, and two of these ground beetles
September 10 I headed off after 4 on a warm, humid afternoon, perhaps the last summer day of the year. I wasn't sure where I was going to go, and wound up at Otter Hole Pond. I entered up pond so I would face the wind, but that made no difference. There were no otters below and the heron still flew off way down from the Beaver Point pool. The water of Otter Hole pond did look recently churned so I waited a half hour, noting the birds using the dead tree branches: robins, flicker, kingbird and a kingfisher flew in as I moved up to the Lost Swamp. The otters were not there. I did see the fruit of the strange plant at the rolling area.
As I entered my attention was drawn to two ospreys up on the dead tree behind the dam, one rather large and the other smaller. The smaller flew off and I got rather close to the larger.
Both were black with striking white feathers coming out, almost through molting, I suppose. At 5:45 I decided to wait until six, though I didn't expect anything to happen. Then just before six I heard a splash near the lodge in the middle of the pond. Then a muskrat swam out.
Then it strangely snapped its tail and dove. It swam out from the pond and then splashed again, splashed with out diving.
Soon after that there was a large splash behind the lodge. It became apparent that two muskrats were relating to each other by splashing, and more, sometimes they swam forward churning the water in splashing fashion for five yards or so. Sometimes they floated closer to each other, say ten yards apart, which didn't seem to faze them. As they separated they would splash again. I watched this for about 20 minutes and there seemed to be no resolution to it. I was not close to them so it was hard to tell, but I think they were small for muskrats. While this was going on, the small osprey returned to the dead tree, almost above me, now, with a large fish in claw and I got to see it pick at the fish,
and at one point, transfer it from on claw to the other. I think the fish was a small pike. I left the muskrats and osprey and went back to the Second pond, sitting behing the downed birch, hoping a beaver would swim over to continue work on it.
None did. So I moved back down to Otter Hole Pond to see if the otter came back. I've decided that this is the most likely nightly den for them -- surrounded by water and beaver-free, but there were no signs that they had come to the lodge. Clouds started moving across the sun and by 10pm we got some much needed rain.
September 13 I headed for Beaver Point Pond at around 8:30 on a humid warming morning with clouds on the way. I saw that Beaver Point Pond pool was muddy, but it is so shallow now that anything could get in there. However, as I made my way across the dam, led by a beautiful monarch,
walking gingerly along the mud apron behind it, I smelled otter scat and then I saw fresh scat on the old scat piles of lodge part of the dam.
To keep the wind in front of me I crossed the dam
and then the pond on the boardwalk now buried in the long grass. I eased up to Otter Hole Pond where by my calculations the otters should be. But I sat for 45 minutes with a good view of the lodge, and saw no otters stirring. A kingfisher flew in and splashed down near the lodge. Then another kingfisher flew in, and they raced above the pond, perhaps the most obvious critters when it comes to defending territory. As the zoomed by the trees on the other side of the pond, an osprey that I had not noticed flew off. The only other curiosity was that the pine tree I was sitting under was dripping a little sap. I went up and over the ridge to the East Trail Pond, wondering if the direction otters go depends on the wind direction. However, my finding no piping fresh scat nor the otters didn't help that theory along. There is a lot more scat on the trail down from the ridge to the East Trail Pond, but nothing left that morning. I walked up on the rocks to get a better view of the pond, and that scent a score of ducks flying off. Wood ducks and mallards, I think. I sat for 20 minutes waiting for otters -- no luck. I did notice an elaborate yellow mushroom under a nearby pine. Though low to the ground I'm pretty certain it grew out of the ground and didn't fall off the tree (perhaps Chicken of the Woods?)
I went down to the pond shore where I had seen the otters scat the other day, but saw no scats. I saw two large and soft scats at their old rolling area around the rotten log, but, again, I don't think they were left that morning. Though not there, the otters clearly have renewed interest in the East Trail Pond. I also noticed the absence of beaver work at the lodge or along the shore. Maybe the beavers far ranging harvest of cherry and ironwood was their last hurrah. I'll have to come out one evening and devote myself to finding out what is happening here. I crossed the Second Swamp pond below the dam. On the north side the beaver made a big path to an ash they are cutting. The sculpted scars in the ash were exquisite, and the pile of chips below, almost mouth watering.
There were other smaller paths below the dam, but not too much more major work. There was no sign that otters had been over the dam recently. The Lost Swamp hosted two large gaggles of geese. Residential goose season has begun, so these worthies were quiet and moved away from me with no disposition to fly off. There were also a few ducks, and a woodcock flew off again from the cove near the otter latrine, but no otters. I didn't find any fresh scat. I did see some fresh beaver gnawing on two girdled but standing trees just up from the pond along the path up to the poplars. I went up to the poplars but so no sign that the beavers had been back up there. I noticed that there is an easy path to this poplar graveyard up from the Second Pond. I walked down to that pond, passing two or three standing poplars, and almost at the foot of the hill were two poplars that the beavers had gnawed into a few inches. Next to these poplars were ironwoods that the beavers had felled.
It can be difficult to account for the tastes of beavers. Perhaps one attraction of the ironwood is that it is juicy, or so it seems to one who has never taken a bite, while poplars look dry. I decided to go back to Otter Hole Pond, so convinced was I that the otters should be there. As I approached it, a noisy pileated woodpecker flew low on the dead trees. It flew off and then a smaller pileated flew up from the ground onto a tree before me.
The headcocking the the woodpecker appears to be a quizzical look, but this little headcocking woodpecker did indeed seem new to the world. There was much more chortling than pecking. There were no otters at Otter Hole Pond. I sat briefly. A grand limb of the large half girdled red oak behind where I usually sit had fallen down. Pity there are no beavers in the pond to notice. I checked for fresh scat at their usual latrine by the dam, and saw none. I went slowly down the slope overlooking Beaver Point Pond, just in case, but no otters. I did see a large doe in the old creek bed, her coat quite brown.
Down at the dam two other deer were in the tall green grass and their coats still had a tint of red. I've always assumed this summer that the otters don't forage in the New Pond, below Beaver Point Pond. I checked the New Pond dam and while launching a myriad of frogs wondered why an otter wouldn't try the same. There may have been otter prints in the mud behind the dam, but I saw no scats. The pond seems too choked with pond weed, with no relief anywhere, to be that appealing to otters.
On the South Bay path I saw two groups of ground beetles, the first with their tails together
and the second with a large beetle on top of two small ones. Clouds, but no rain.
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