Bob's Summer Journal: August 2 to 8, 2011

August 2 we went up to Montreal on the 31st and got back yesterday evening. This morning I had to devote to wood sawing and splitting. I worked up at the Teepee Pond in the afternoon. The sawing rock was in the shade but the patch of meadow between the two little ponds was basking in the bright sun. I first watched a goldfinch

that was mainly interested in the purple burdock flower. And then two monarch butterflies visited the boneset,

And I tried to creep closer with my camera clicking.

Last night I took a walk after dinner and briefly sat by the Deep Pond. I didn’t see the beaver. So tonight after dinner I walked down to the pond via the Third Pond so I could walk around the high east shore of the pond where the beaver has done most of its foraging, though it wasn’t over there when I saw it on the 30th. Over in the southeast corner of the pond I no longer see the muddy bottom, and a muddy bottom is always a good sign of beaver foraging.

And the two places where I have seen the beaver grooming on the shore look about the same, which doesn’t mean the beaver hasn’t been there. Looking over at the back of the dam, it looked like the beaver had been up on the dam beating down the grasses in two areas where the dam leaks.

And the bank lodge looks used with a large lily pad left at the entrance, perhaps for a quick snack.

Then I got back to the road and took my usual stroll down to White Swamp. On my way back I stopped at the Deep Pond dam and saw that the beaver was out eating pondweed back toward the east end of the pond. Then it swam over the to northeast shore and dove a bit and rooted under water briefly and pulled something up to eat. The deeper water seems to make the beaver dive a bit for food instead of finding everything on the surface of the water. No problem for a beaver. Tomorrow I'll check to see if it patched the dam. I’m sure it did. The water is still high in the pond and I don’t hear any of it flowing out.

August 3 I worked in the morning, then after lunch went down to see if the beaver in the Deep Pond had repaired the dam. At the old gap that beavers dammed when they moved into the pond back in 2000, which has been repaired over the years, this beaver seems to have paid some attention, pushing up some mud and cut grasses.

The beaver also pushed a good bit of mud up where I didn’t think there was a leak in the dam. Of course one may have developed that I hadn’t noticed, or the beaver wanted a bit of mud to fashion a more comfortable place to groom.

There were some cut grass fronds behind the pond there.

The next gap formed after muskrats undermined the dam several years ago. I tried failed to repair it, then a beaver came and did the job. I think that is where the principal leak was and the beaver did a pretty good job patching it.

And I suppose it is fair to say that it ate its way to the problem spot.

I went down to the Last Pool to see how much water collected since the 3 inch downpour we had on the 29th. My worst fears were realized. There was hardly any water pooled around the lodge,

And looking down pond along the flat bottom, I saw that what water had flowed into the pond remained in the deep canal the beavers dug.

Yet even that channel did not seem to hold that much water. There was a sizable gap under the little root bridge which is where I usually gauge the depth of the water.

This bodes ill for a lush spring here with pools of water between moss covered tree trunks. However, a good number of frogs were still enjoying the canal.

I walked down to Boundary Pond dam going along the east shore which is more direct. The water that hurried through the Last Pool did not collect behind the big dam.

The pools of water just behind the dam looked lower and one area was choked with duck weed.

There was almost a dry path to the lodge,

which, of course, looms larger and larger as the water around it gets lower.

This was not the day to study the remains of the beavers’ world -- still too many mosquitoes and deer flies. I also made a quick check on the Third Pond and saw that while the pond was still filled with water, as measured by the dam, I could see that the level was getting lower.

I’ve also been keeping an eye out for mushrooms, expecting the heavy rain we had to bring them back to life after their dormancy during a dry month. But I only saw one effusion of rather plain looking fungi just off the trail to the Third Pond dam.

August 4 we slept on the island last night -- another engagement prevented me from checking to see if there are beaver kits in the East Trail Pond, but I did get up and out in the kayak by 6:40 am, still too late for the romantic dawn but a good time to be out. There was a light east wind luring me toward Picton Island and it pushed me quickly through the Narrows and then I faced a stronger northeast wind and had to angle through foot high waves. I finally took it broadside until I could position myself to ride the waves directly to Quarry Point. The water level has lowered enough to allow a couple dozen seagulls, two Caspian terns, and a heron to perch on the shoal rock off the headland of Wellesley Island. There were fishermen in the Narrows, as well as a heron. Two ospreys in the power pole nest there were bent over something -- I can’t believe they still have chicks. I’ve learned to look for gulls in Picton channel as a good sign that otters had foraged there at dawn, but there were no gulls today. I could still hope that was because the strong wind kept them away. The choppy water along the rocky Picton shore meant it was not easy getting close to the shore. But I was able to get right up to the strand of rocky rubble that the otters larded with scats last year. The water level is still high enough to shrink that strand by half especially with lapping waves. But if the otters had been there I think I could have seen evidence of that and I didn’t. I was not able to get close to other areas where I know otters here like to latrine. Since I didn’t see any scats when I was here three weeks ago, after seeing such a promising array of scats in the late spring, I began to worry that the otters had left and even stopped visiting this shore. But then I reached the last rock piles at the end of the quarry which in other years seemed to serve as a sign post for the otters. Sure enough there three scats that looked rather fresh perhaps from this morning. There was dampness around one, probably urine which dries up in a matter of hours, but it could have been from the light rain we had late yesterday afternoon. I continued paddling west along the shore. Personally the shore below the ridges that have never been quarried looked more hospitable to otters to me with plenty of moss and dirt to dig into, but even I have to admit that the quarries afford more places to hide. There are some tree roots opening down to a rock where I saw otter pups three years ago (I think it was,) but I didn’t see any signs of otters there. A little farther west, I saw another flat rock with scats -- I couldn’t see how fresh they were. Nearby there was some grass on top of a wall of rocks that was matted down suggesting that perhaps otters scooted up there. I continued paddling around one placid bay but no signs of otters retiring back there. I paddled back along the same shore and now not only did I have the waves and wind to contend with but the sun had risen high enough in the sky to blind me. So I didn’t look for more signs until I got to the other side of Quarry Point, where otters also frequently latrine. I saw one trail up through the grasses, but no latrines and no rolling areas as I looked up from the water, which was too rough to allow me to climb out of the kayak and onto shore. The forecast was for the winds to diminish, but at 8am the wind seemed to have picked up. I used Murray and Grinnell islands to shield me from the wind and then Wellesley Island did a better job blocking the northeast wind than I anticipated but the waves were generally rolling against me. A good workout and reason enough to go back to Picton soon, and earlier in the day, to look for otters. After dinner back at the land, I went down to the Deep Pond to watch the beaver. When I got in my chair by the dam, I saw that it was out along the southeast shore of the pond and swimming toward the nearby bank lodge. I thought it sensed me and was retiring, but instead it veered directly toward and swam rather close.

Then it veered away from me and swam over to the nearby east shore of the pond and nosed into the vegetation to get something to eat.

It seems to tolerate my being there.

August 5 I spent the night in our house on the island which meant that after dinner I could go to the East Trail Pond to see if the beavers there have kits. I went over the ridge via the Antler Trail and noticed that the moss and lichens looked healthy thanks to the recent rains, but most of the other vegetation did not recover.

My friend Jean the mushroom hunter who suffered through July’s drought and then had to go home asked me to see if there were any mushrooms about, especially chanterelles. I wandered east of the South Bay trail under the tall oaks on the peninsula, a place where Jean once showed me chanterelles. I saw five different types of mushrooms

and a vigorous orange array but of the poisonous kind, jack o'lanterns, not chanterelles.

Back on the trail, my way was impeded by a scrawny young deer, so scrawny that I wondered if it might be a precocious fawn.

If not, if must be diseased because the dry spell didn’t much effect the lush vegetation in shady areas. There was a larger deer with it, and both were loath to leave,

but did. The creek coming down from the northern ponds was flowing nicely. I veered a bit off the shady East Trail and saw no mushrooms and then went around to where I usually sit on the ridge north of the East Trail Pond. No sooner did I sit down than a beaver slapped its tail under the buttonbushes right below me. I held my ground and tried to see where the beaver went to. I kept looking into the deeper cover of buttonbushes assuming the beaver might be fearful, but I soon saw it just at the edge of the open water with part of its head just shielded by some vegetation, less fearful than calculating. I could see it nose and it looked like it was sniffing.

Then the beaver swam out into the open, turned its back to me and I thought its tail was cocked for a slap,

but it turned back toward me, nose still sniffing, harder now, and it dove and disappeared.

It was a very humid night and I was a bit high up perhaps my odor didn’t sink to its level. Not that I could say that it went about its business as if I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it again. I sat a bit longer trying to see a deer foraging in the shallows of the south side of the pond. Then I thought I saw some ripples behind the dam so I walked up the ridge and down toward the dam trying to get a good vantage point to see that. I did, but the rippling was nothing more than the nippling of the water by tadpoles or frogs swimming under water. I did see a clear channel down to the dam and what looked like two stripped sticks in it.

Plus there was what looked to me to be fresh gnawing on some trees that had been girdled before, suggesting that a beaver was coming up here to forage.

I walked down the ridge toward the dam and saw that the beavers cut down a choke cherry tree, not much stripping of it, though.

I went across the bridge over the inlet creek and from there got a good view of the channel behind the dam.

It was easy to see that the beavers had plenty of water to swim in. However, none were swimming yet. I walked on the old dilapidated
boardwalk to get to the south side of the pond and it angled away from the pond. I didn’t see any evidence of beavers coming down across the boardwalk as they did in the winter. The vegetation below the dam is thick.

Every summer since the pond drained out the mix of plants here has been different. Today I didn’t notice the buckwheat vine that proliferated during dry summers. I had to wade through the cut-grass, no pleasure, that. I saw vervain scattered about, and one large patch of cattails.

Bur marigolds were popping up. I could see them along the boardwalk where the grasses and rushes didn’t dwarf them. One summer there had been large patches of butter-and-eggs. I only saw one this evening. I think that flower does better in slightly drier soil. One duck flew up from the small pool behind the old dam which is completely choked with duckweed. Then I turned my attention back to the beavers. I sat in the shade on the ridge south of the dam and realized that though the pond was deep enough for these beavers, that it was shallow enough to accentuate the diving and swimming of the frogs. Frogs and beavers operate quite differently. Especially as the pond gets more shallow, the beaver seems more stealthy, priding itself on swimming and diving without making a noise and that minimizes its wake when it swims. Frogs don’t seem to adjust to depth and when they dive in shallow water they make a loud noise and a surprisingly large wake. So the frogs had me looking here and there. Then I began to hear some whining from the lodge, which is now hidden by tall cattails. On a Friday night the surrounding river whines a bit too, with motorboats. But I know a beaver's whine. I’ve followed this family for 10 years and know that the adults seldom make a noise so I am pretty sure I was hearing the kits, or at least one kit. When the woods got dark, I knew I had to go. I walked up the south shore hoping to see a beaver out in the more open water, but didn’t. Then I walked up to the East Trail, looking back all the way. Finally I saw a beaver swimming behind the dam and then up the south shore. I went a bit back down the ridge hoping to see it better and see a trailing kit. But it was too dark. I thought I was taking a video of a beaver eating, but now that I look at the video, I see the water move a bit, but no beaver. There was a half moon, not enough to excite any coyotes.

August 8 I spent the morning searching for a narrative. Usually at this time of year I just embrace the density of summer, but in other summers I had beaver kits to expect or watch. Anyway, I went down to the Deep Pond to see if the beaver has built up the dam some more. I didn’t see any evidence of that, and didn’t notice any leaks either. I did see a curious trail going along the dam.

Beavers generally don’t make trails like that. They generally just go over the dam at those points where they want to forage. The vegetation in the pond, especially the pondweed and water lilies, has once again poked up above the water, and I think that's more because the plants have stretched up to the light than that the water level has dropped.

Then I walked down to the Last Pool and found that it was dry enough to approach the entrance into the south side of the lodge.

There was only a small puddle of water remaining of the large pool that had been south of the lodge.

However conditions still weren’t right for sticking my head in the hole -- too muddy and the mosquitoes were active, so I stuck my camera in, farther than last time, and took several photos and one was in focus.

But I am not sure I can make sense of it. The beavers built the lodge around a mossy mound, but I am not sure how much they were able to dig into it. Another puzzle is the mud flat between the collection of sticks around the lodge and the deep channel through the middle of the pond. Here is something I don't want to sink into.

This had long been a vernal pool and I think it had a grassy bottom. Now I wonder if one reason this area no longer holds water is because the beavers and muskrats ate all the vegetation. Next summer this should be a flat of grass and then the spring after that a vernal pool once again, provided the water doesn’t all settle in the dredged channel, which still held water today, but I have taken so many photos of the upper part of the channel that I didn’t take another. I saved my channel photo for the stretch just above Boundary Pond. There the channel ran out of water.

I got a camera into the hole in the moss mound just east of the channel, and the photo I got is a bit puzzling. I was expecting to see the hole going up into the mound since beaver burrows have to have air in them so that the beaver can breath. But this tunnel seemed to burrow deeper into the earth.

Maybe when I try to climb into the hole I’ll see that it actually slopes up. There are holes on top of the mound going down to the burrow so a beaver was hardly boxing itself in when it swam into the hole.

The mound complex, if you will allow that portentous phrase, extends several more feet, so it is possible that burrow I’ve seen so far was a work in progress and the beaver had yet to dig up into the mound.

Then perhaps other animals did some burrowing, or at least borrowing. There were coyote prints nearby in the mud and raccoon prints in the mud right outside the burrow.

Before I left the Last Pool, my eye was struck by the gnawing the beavers did on the lowest part of a birch trunk.

I’ve never noticed such gnarly feature and suppose that part of the trunk had been under the dirt around the tree. I have to look more closely at the bottom of yellow birch trunks. On my tours of this valley I have been looking for the collection of small logs that had been sawed years ago and left to rot. I finally found some and the area where they were collected, that I had called “logdam.”

The logs seemed to have been pushed around, not at all the neat little collection that I remember. Here is how the area look in August 2007.

But I’ll make a closer study of old photos later. The one above does show that there was a ditch south of the this collection of logs in 2007, not sure how much beavers had used it then, not sure, that is, until I check my notes. My hope is that by next year those ferns will be back in this area, but it is possible that there is no longer enough shade here for ferns. Boundary Pond continues to lose water too and pools that I thought might be permanent are shrinking away.

When water was in the pools to the east of the channel, I could imagine that beavers had dredged those pools to make them deeper. But now that they are dry they look like mud flats suggesting that the beavers, and muskrats, did nothing more than dig up the vegetation.

There are pools closer to the dam on this east side, and I can still fancy that beavers had dredged them deeper.

And the east bank of the pools do look dug out and looking back toward the lodge one can see mud flats closer to the lodge slope down to the pool.

As I’ve noted before, the beavers did have burrows over in this east bank, features that beavers often dredge toward. Not much new at the dam, save for less water behind it. The principal pool behind the dam is resolving itself into a circle, a green circle thanks to the duckweed.

I looked over the dam and did not see a flow of water so I think this water is no longer draining out. It is evaporating and sinking into the ground. The water is low enough that I saw a few ways that I could climb out onto the lodge from the old west shore of the pond. There is still a narrow channel of water around the west side of the lodge between the lodge and a cache pile.

But first I paused on the pile of beaver gnawed sticks. I had seen beavers nibbling here many evenings, especially kits. Now I saw what they dropped and left under the water.

Can I picture myself sitting on this pile of sticks some cool day examining them more closely? The beavers here never had mud with which to pack onto their lodge, as beavers commonly do. The forest litter muck all around evidently does not pack and freeze hard. So it will be hard for vegetation to grown on this lodge. I saw a few plants of nightshade.

The entrances of the lodge are slowly becoming apparent. During the 3 years the beavers were here this pond sometimes got very shallow, and the lush duckweed seems to mark how deeply the beavers dredged an entrance to the lodge.

Looking on the north side of the lodge which was used more when the pond was deep, I saw how high the poplar logs the beavers stripped there last fall, settled up on the apron of logs that accumulated around the lodge.

And I think there is an entrance to the lodge somewhere under there. I was surprised to see what looked like a hole into the lodge from the top of the lodge.

I stuck my camera down in it and got a photo that shows space but precious little distance.

I never saw the beavers on top of this lodge much, a few times to adjust sticks, so I think it possible that this cavern resulted just from the haphazard way the beavers piled sticks on the lodge. But again, on a cool day I may try to figure this out, too. Once on top, I took a look around. Next year will the area above the dam,

look like the area below the dam, a sea of green?

The channels going around the lodges east side look deeper and better developed than those on the west side.

My guess is that they were there before the beavers developed the area. Perhaps I have some old photos of this area which for years I just considered as the boggy, inaccessible boundary of our land. A barbed wire fence runs through the lodge. I hope this area never becomes so dry that I can see the bottom of the channels, which would be the easiest way to tell if the beavers dug them out. Looking to the north, I saw that the cache piles the beavers accumulated are on top of a considerable bank.

These beavers were unable to sink branches and logs around their pond. They had to keep the channels around the higher ground free for swimming, and they chose not to sink branches in a pool just to the east of the cache bank, to coin a phrase.

I recall seeing beavers in that pool last summer, not realizing then that it was a deeper pool. I thought the beavers were attracted only by the green grass. The pool seemed to be a first stop in their evening’s foraging. I decided to get off the lodge going east and when I got down beside the lodge I took a photo of it, close up, just showing the trees it was built between.

The east end of the lodge appears to be a mound of dirt already there, not something heaped up by the beavers. The entrances on this side of the lodge were almost accessible,

But I couldn’t get my camera down into that large one and a photo looking into a smaller one didn’t show much. I got a photo looking back at the pools along the east shore which shows that the beavers never dredged a short cut over there.

I hopped over a small channel and walked up the bank where the beavers had their cache. I took a photo of the point where the main channel branched and saw that what I kept calling a cache was a few sticks on top of some higher ground.

The easiest jump to shore was back across the main channel to the west. I found a tall stump to steady myself with before my leap and before I leaped noticed that it was one tall stump. The beavers cut the tree during the winter while they stood on the ice and snow and now the top of the stump is 4 feet above the level of the water in the channel.

Back on familiar ground, though still alien enough with all the small stumps of trees, I found a big downed trunk to sit on, the better to contemplate the scene. Obviously I learned that a beaver pond can be a sometimes thing, but I was also reminded how when presented with the level surface of the large pond, I always close my mind to the reality of the pond underneath, which is the real world the beavers in the pond deal with. I picture the freedom of the open seas; they deal with a watery maze. I didn’t take any more photos along Boundary Pond and the Last Pool, well, I took them, but no need to show another photo of a frog contemplating the same scene as I was, nor of more dead trees and stumps. I continued up the valley and saw that the vernal pool 50 yards up from the Last Pool was full of water, and the valley pool has a nice amount for this time of year. Even the Turtle Bog was full of water.

Somehow the beavers’ dredging cheated the valley bogs, as I used to call them, of a much wetter late summer than usual. I headed home via the tiny meadow between the First and Teepee ponds. I saw two butterflies there,