September 10 to 19 we left the St. Lawrence Valley on the 19th, maybe we’ll be away for as long as four months. Our longest absence from the valley in the last 18 years has been about two weeks and that was back in 1997. Obviously we will miss the river, the island and our land, but duty calls. We’ll be caring for an aging parent. Fortunately, I can think of no end of summer in the last 18 years when there has been less activity to observe, and by a long shot. The drought is not the reason. About 15 years ago when I began to hit my stride observing nature, I thought I’d write about what I called the Year of a Hundred Seasons. Every third day seemed like a new dispensation. The gyrations of the animals and plants seemed so widely various to me. Now I understand that there are longer arcs of activity. This year has been a fallow period both on the Island and at our land. But the East Trail Pond on the island and the Deep Pond on our land continue in a minimal way to show me the genius of beavers for survival. At the Deep Pond where a beaver or beavers continues to push mud and cut vegetation up on the pond shore above a burrow.
It looks like the beaver is bringing up old cut logs that sank into the pond as it pushes up the fresh mud from the pond. That’s my guess since the short logs almost look like a part of the mud, though I suppose putting the mud on the logs and then dragging belly or tail over that would give the growing pile the same look.
The leafy honeysuckle branches are piled toward the back of all this work.
Generally beavers begin sinking branches in front of a lodge in the fall, preparing a cache of food for the winter. In my experience beavers don’t cache honeysuckle. As I’ve noticed when I try to get around or through a patch of honeysuckle, its branches are great for filling space, and I think that is what the beaver is trying to do here so that other animals won’t even think about digging down into the burrow. I walked along the shore to the nearest patch of honeysuckle and easily found where the beaver cut the biggest branch of the bush nearest to the pond.
I took a photo behind the bush showing where the beaver may have come up from the pond.
There also appeared to be a wide trail going back into the woods.
Which I followed back in the woods of small ironwoods at the foot of the high ridge behind the pond, I didn’t see any sign of beaver foraging.
Save for a small gnaw mark at the base of the old apple tree there.
Eighteen years ago I wouldn’t have noticed such small and seemingly inconsequential signs. The beavers I watched worked a broad canvas with an extensive palette of trees. But what I am seeing now might be more significant. Learning how to use honeysuckle which flourishes in this area might be a key to the beavers surviving with the dearth of willow and aspen in many areas. Anticipating that I might go over the knoll in a full pond inspection, I walked back toward the dam to check for beaver signs there. I saw what looked like trails up onto the flat grassy shore, the upshot of which, as far as I could tell, was that the beaver ate some grass, though I couldn’t exactly see what stalks.
But looking into the pond it was easy to see that the beavers probably are living off the vegetation on the pond bottom, which has always been shallow, 1 to 3 feet, here.
The photo above also shows the east end of the dam where, as far as I can see, the beavers have not pushed up any mud recently. Sometimes when a new beaver comes into this pond, especially at this time of year, it makes a point of the working on the dam. No need for that this drought year.Then I walked back along the east shore heading for the inlet creek. Where the bank begins to rise, I saw flattened grass as well as fan grass stalks evidently brought up on the shore by a beaver.
Then I took a photo looking over to the knoll showing how muddy the pond water is and how clear of vegetation.
I took the photo below last year at this time. It’s not the same angle as the photo I took today but it shows more vegetation in the pond.
Last year one beaver had foraged in the pond since late June. The other burrow, on the high bank, that I thought beavers were using looks about the same.
The water along the shore near that burrow looked quite clear of vegetation.
A beaver may well be using that burrow too. Since it goes into a high bank not so easily dug into, it doesn’t have to pile logs and branches and push mud over the ground above the burrow. Meanwhile three mud pats on the low shore between that burrow and the inlet creek have not been added to.
I have seen mud pats grow into high scent mounds especially when a new beaver comes into a pond. When a beaver came into the pond in the early spring, it fashioned a scent mound above the bank lodge below the knoll. Judging from how muddy the water is between those mud pats and the knoll, the beavers are still foraging there.
I’m not sure why beavers stop bothering about making their mark. I decided not to cross the inlet creek and not climb over the knoll to the west side of the pond. I turned to go back around the pond and saw that it certainly looked like a beaver was cozying up to the burrow on the southeast shore that both beavers had been using for most of the summer and then seemed to abandon.
I truly do not really know what the beavers are up to here. I didn’t know how assiduous I would be checking on everything before we went away for four months. I was somewhat surprised that I didn’t make a point of seeing everything one more time. We even went off for two days to see our son’s new apartment in Montreal. When we came back to our land on the 14th, I took a relaxing walk checking on things, less eager to take photos than I usually am. I wanted to relax with our land. When I checked the Deep Pond, I saw that the dying leaves on the honeysuckles the beaver cut made it easier to see the pile of vegetation it had heaped up on top of the burrow on the northeast corner of the pond.
Comparing what I saw on the 14th with what I saw on the 10th, it is clear that a beaver is still building up the shore above the burrow with mud, logs and branches.
And it also looks like the water level has gone down a bit. We did have enough rain to break the drought but not enough to start refilling the ponds. I also took a photo of the entrance to the burrow in the middle of the high east bank of the pond. Comparing that to the photo I took on the 10th, it looked like the beaver had not added anything to that small pile.
I bet the beavers have moved in together into the burrow where the work is being done. And from afar the work there is getting to look pretty impressive.
I keep writing about all the vegetation growing in the pond that the beavers must have eaten, but I have never seen what I call leftovers that a beaver collected from the pond bottom and didn’t get around to eating. I saw some today, not that I can easily identify it.
When it is not milfoil, I call it pond weed. Then I headed up to the Teepee Pond where it was easy to see that there had not been enough rain to raise the water level in the ponds.
As usual a painted turtle was basking in the sun. I took a photo of what remains of the pickerel weed that had grown up in the pond water more lushly than I have ever seen and that is now high dry along the pond shore.
Continuing around the pond I saw where a little water flooded over the mud that had been backed into cracks when it was completely exposed to the sun.
I saw where something had peeled back some of the cracked mud, probably a raccoon.
Probably digging for crayfish that I think dig into the dirt and find water at the bottom of their hole. I can’t think what else could make the neat little holes I found in the baked shore around the pond.
This pond also has a embankment, man made and built up by beavers who were here for 5 years.
And below the embankment that forms the north shore of the pond, I saw a pool of water that I bet was the entrance to a muskrat burrow.
I took a photo looking back at the neat little pool. The gangling dead vegetation looming over it are the remains of pickerel weed.
I don’t think I can go so far as to say the muskrats fashioned this pool, but I think they took advantage of it. From the north shore of the pond I took a photo of the lumps of dirt dug out on the south shore,
Which turned out to be the last photo I took at the land, for a while.
On island on September 10 I headed off to sit at the East Trail Pond getting there after 5 pm when I might get a look a the beavers there. I stayed on the East Trail until I got above the lodge the beavers just built below the high ridge that forms to north shore of the pond. The lodge looked more built up so I found a comfortable spot and waited for something to come out.
But before I saw any beaver, I was entertained by a pleated woodpecker. It lit on a barkless pole of a dead tree trunk and from there took a look around.
Then it flew over to a tree with bark, and began hopping down that trunk in that inimitable jerky hesitating was that big woodpeckers have.
I soon saw that it wasn’t after insects living under the bark. It kept looking around like it was lowering down to hide from something, though that twitching red head is pretty hard to hide.
When it got as low as it could go on the trunk it flew down on a log in the water. I was seeing how a pleated woodpecker gets a drink of water from the pond.
It soon flew off and I resumed looking for beavers. There was no reason to think that old lodge in the middle of the pond was still not being used. It was surrounded by vegetation but there were channels radiating from it.
The easiest place to see a beaver is in the open water between the north end of the dam and both of the lodges.
I happened to be watching there when a duck landed in the water and I got to watch it slowly swim below me. I’ll have to ponder its identification since it is probably growing in its fall plumage.
The duck swam under some bushes in the water below me where, as I found out when I twitched and they all flew away, it joined two other ducks. Then I saw some rippling in the middle of the pond in a little opening in the thick vegetation about half way between the two lodges with the rippling seeming to indicate a beaver swimming up pond. I focused on the area between where I saw the rippling and the new lodge.
But I didn’t see any rippling coming from that direction to the lodge. Of course the beavers here frequently swim under water through their channels and the several times I’ve seen them do that I have never been able to trace their progress through the pond. Several minutes later, I began to see rippling behind the new lodge and shortly after that I saw a beaver swim from around the lodge and into view.
It slowly swam closer to me but I soon got the impression that it knew I was there. It swam behind bushes so I couldn’t see it well, but I could see enough. It was sniffing in my direction. When it turned and swam back to the lodge, it made a point of slapping its tail. That was too bad because a likely place for the beaver to go was to a large cut in a tree trunk just below me.
So I retreated up the ridge but, of course, kept an eye on the pond. I noticed another small pine tree the beavers gnawed into and almost cut down.
And then I saw the beaver again, swimming out in the open, perhaps to keep track of me, before swimming into some more concealing vegetation.
I suppose I could have stayed. Even when I disturb the beavers here, I never scare them back into the their lodges, but I prefer to see them without disturbing them, especially when this will probably be the last time I see them for awhile. When I got up on the East Trail I took a photo of a tree trunk almost complete pecked away by the woodpeckers.
I’ve wanted to take a photo of it for awhile and this might be my last chance. I doubt if it will be standing in February. I also took a photo of the west end of the pond.
I haven’t seen a beaver there in a while and the water there is certainly not deep. The trees they felled there recently don’t show evidence of being gnawed or trimmed, but there are channels there that look like they continue to be used. So goodbye pond. I hope you soon fill up with water and that the kits that I suspect are there but who I’ve never seen will be doing well in February when I’m back.
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