September 16 Three nights ago, some screech owls roosted briefly near the house, one evidently in the silver maple. Two nights ago we got over an inch of rain. This morning I headed off under a cloudy sky and came back in brilliant sun. The grass and bushes were dry behind the golf course, only up on the granite ridge did I see some puddles. Going up to the ridge I sent a half dozen deer in different directions, but didn't see another deer until I got around to the foot of the East Trail just up from South Bay. Birds in the meadow were quick and brown, song sparrows, I bet. I heard a towhee and the blue jays seemed to have me under surveillance. But in the main, the only noise was from the crickets. I crossed the Double Lodge Pond dam where there were no animal signs but a pleasing array of flowers. The pile wort and milkweed are tossing white seeds to the wind; the cattails shedding;
there seems to be a second crop of vervain, smaller than the first; a few yellow buttons remain on the mullein, enough to attract the bees' attention;
the knotweed is thick, and up on the Big Pond dam I saw one plant with blue flowers. Of course, the star of the season is the burr marigold.
And there were three flowers I couldn't identify: two white
The first is perhaps hemlock parsley, and the second, wild guess, a chickweed of some sort. The other mystery plant is yellow, and Leslie suggests nipplewort.
I saw some otter scat at the edge of the Big Pond dam where I sit, not especially fresh and saw no more sure otter signs when I crossed the dam. As I sat up there I heard weird screeching from clump of bushes about 50 yards below the dam. At times it sounded like birds, then squirrels. Since nothing flew off, I suspect the latter. Stripped logs were around the beaver lodge.No ducks or geese on the pond. The Lost Swamp Pond had geese, not as many as usual, and some ducks, but nothing else was happening or had been happening. Of course I seldom see beaver work around this pond in the late summer. But about this time last year, the beavers started working up at the stand of poplars. There were no otter scats at the mossy cove or north slope, and the osprey weren't about. Otter Hole Pond at least had a kingfisher splashing and cackling. No otter signs there either. I considered crossing the dam but decided it was too lush. So I went down along the shore of Beaver Point Pond. At the jumble of rocks I saw a curious array of raccoon scat, almost a dozen relatively old boli, some broken down completely into evidently indigestible seeds.
Down at the dam, the pool was pea green more than muddy. There is so much otter scat up on the dam that the general scatty odor prevented me from deciding if there was some fresh scat there. I didn't see any. Animals had been up and over the dam, and channel below the dam looked churned up. Then on the mud behind the dam were what I took to be frog entrails. I should think at otter would eat those. Still that activity got my hopes up and I expected otters or signs of same at the East Trail Pond, but I was disappointed. There were two dozen wood ducks and with a careful walk along the shore I was able to find where the beavers were doing their harvesting. They have kept open channels through the cattails, and are cutting down small maples.
I went around to the rocks behind the beaver lodge. Four ducks flew off 2 by 1 by 1. The lodge looked dug in to.
No scat around. Shangri-la Pond is mostly dry, but redeemed by bur marigold. Meander Pond is just hanging on. I saw the latest red oak girdling by the beavers. Pity that they girdle all three trunks growing out of a common root, rather than just fell one. They are also taking small maple.
Evidently maple bark tastes good this time of year. Short-cut Trail Pond is dry and the pond below has just a crisscross of shrinking muddy channels. Bur marigold rules and from the bridge there I could peer down on the bees and butterflies enjoying the flowers. Audubon Pond seemed to be teeming with critters in the water. I saw painted turtles on logs and lurking in the water; frogs jumped with every twitch, and further out in the pond firsh swirled the water -- I assume fish because no snapping turtles surfaced. Then a shore wader flew in and instead of having to imagine if getting a meal of insects, I saw it fish out a three inch fish. It dropped the fish once but the little couldn't swim away fast enough. Unfortunately as I was getting out the monocular, the bird either swallowed or lost interest in the fish -- the latter, I think. The only excitement on my way home, other than the little deer I saw and some raucous crows, was a congeries of cabbage butterflies on some rotting wood. They seemed to be talking with their wings. And a life lesson: I saw a dead mouse move, and then the beetle came out from under it.
September 17 I headed off in the boat around 4:30, first to check the otter latrine under the willow in South Bay. I had this hunch that the otters had gone out in the bay, but there was no fresh scat, scat smell, nor fish parts under the willow. South Bay is quite shallow but I could still drift in down the north cove with an eye cocked for bryozoas. The yellow jackets worked the lily pads
which seemed to be completely free of the jelly gobs that I assume came from the disintegrating bryozoa. I couldn't see any aphids on the lily pads, but there were herds of fleas.
I wondered if these were springtails, if so they are quite pale. Then I began to see what looked like small gobs of poop on and around the lily pads. I fished one out and they seemed to have some structure and surface features somewhat like bryozoa save that all was black and quite shrunken.
Could these be bryozoa blackened by cold temperatures. We've had several night in the mid 40s. Then as I floated along I saw the clear centers of some bryozoa, elongated like a deflated balloon.
When I rowed out of the area where I usually see the bryozoa, I saw more poop like blobs in the water. I scooped one out and this was definitely plant matter. There were not as many nor as many varieties of fish this time, just a few schools of very small fry. An osprey and a tern were about briefly and three ducks that were not of the usual variety. I couldn't get close enough to begin to make an identification. I docked on the shore and at my feet when I got out was this red flower, probably water smartweed.
I walked up to Otter Hole Pond and the otters were not there. I had seen the otters so often for a few weeks that I expect to bump into them. As I walked up the slope to the ridge, I saw a raccoon working the pond, two hands busy under water and it came up with at least one item worthy to be taken up to the mouth.
Raccoons never seem to get meals (unless they get into the garbage can!), only furtive little bites of this and that. The trail going down to the Lost Swamp looked freshly used but there was no fresh scat on it. I moved along to the Second Swamp Pond and as I went up to the rocks above the beaver lodge, a raven and a crow seemed to have a confrontation behind and above me. Both flew off. To my surprise there was no activity at the lodge, neither mewing or nibbling. As I waited I worried that something had happened to the beavers. Even though there was very fresh work scattered below me around the pond, this is the time of year when hunters go out. After a 20 minute wait, a beaver swam out of the grasses in the middle of the pond. Judging from the distances it swam underwater, I assume it knew I was there. It surfaced and floated like a log,
but didn't splash its tail. Evidently I got here too late to see the beavers active around the lodge. They've all gone off to work. Though I'm thinking of a new theory: perhaps late in a warm summer of drought, the beavers spend a minimal amount of time in the lodge and instead lurk among the cattails and grasses. Observers a hundred years ago, like Mills, thought beavers completely abandoned lodges in the summer. The beavers in these ponds never have, indeed many have built lodges in the summer, but the days getting shorter might signal to the beavers that there days of long confinement in the lodge are approaching, all the more reason to keep out during the gentle late summer. The first freezing night will be call to begin preparing the lodge for winter. I was surprised I only saw one beaver. With so much recent work just below the dam, I thought one or two would be there. Indeed as I walked down there I saw more trees being but, including a large elm
and another clump of birch, but no beavers. I checked Otter Hole Pond for fresh scats. The smell was there but I couldn't see anything fresh. I'm afraid the old piles are making the scat. I looked at Beaver Point pool from afar. Just after I said to myself that the scum on the peagreen water hadn't even been broken, two things swam through the pool breaking the scum.
I have to think they were frogs. That pool is so shallow that even pup otters would make a considerable commotion if they swam through, even underwater. There was a beautiful gold light in the woods -- all indications are that were are going to have long, warm and golden fall.
September 18 after a swim, water about 65 degrees, I went off to check on the Second Swamp pond beavers to make sure there is more than one beaver living there. I saw several deer on the TIP ridge trail, interrupting them on their way to the graciously irrigated grass of the Park. I crossed Beaver Point Pond dam, saw no fresh otter scats, and the lingering scat smell wasn't as pungent. And there was nothing happening at Otter Hole Pond, no ducks, no raccoon. Of course, I studied every stick and shadow that had any resemblance to an otter. To get the best angle on the wind for beaver watching, I went up to the East Trail Pond to briefly check for otter scat. Half way down the trail from the ridge there was a tiny black squirt
and then on the log by the dam there was a good size, and very fresh, scat. So I lingered hoping to see the lovelies, also encourage by the wind in my face, an otter wind, as I call it. But no otters appeared. One black duck flew off. As I crossed the creek below the dam, I noticed the turtlehead flowers were still going strong. On the way to the Second Swamp I found parts of a muskrat skull
(somewhat explaining why I've seen so few muskrats) and a black and white feather, perhaps from an osprey.
As I came up on the rock above the Second Swamp Pond lodge, several blue jays made a commotion as they flew out of the small red oak above the lodge. Out in the pond, there was a few turtles on a large log, nothing else. However, I could see quite a few freshly stripped sticks bobbing in the pond. At 5:30 I heard at least two beavers humming in the lodge, perhaps three part harmony. I cocked my camcorder to ready... in vain. No beavers swam about. Indeed, for the next 75 minutes the beavers were mostly silent, with only the vaguest gnawing. I was standing ready to go, when a beaver finally came out, surfaced in the middle of the pond and floated like a log
for three minutes before diving and quietly going about its business up pond. It is possible that the beavers knew I was there and stayed in the lodge, thus my silly theory of yesterday about beavers wanting to get out of the lodge as much as possible might not be all wet. But obviously, they did stay in the lodge much longer than any other time I've come to watch them. I did have some distractions during the 75 minute wait: a small beetle wrestled and subdued a large ant, a praying mantis sat on my shoulder and then flew off, and a kingfisher made several dives. I went back to the East Trail Pond which was perfectly still, the otter wind had died. Likewise Otter Hole Pond. Several birds flew quickly, covertly, getting ready for the night which seems to begin to fall so quickly.
September 20 another hot, humid day, mostly sunny. On my way out to the ponds at around 2pm, I asked myself why otters would suffer the heat, why not just stay inside their den. Anyway, up on the TIP ridge, I saw a young buck with a not handsome rack.
We've seen more endowed bucks along County Route 100. I wonder if the more coveted territory is that near civilization and lush gardens. I picked some grapes, quite a good harvest from two clumps of vines along the South Bay trail. So busy picking, I didn't take a picture. Then I crossed the New Pond and checked Beaver Point Pool. I heard chirping as I approached so I sat awhile on the rock above the pool until I heard the same chirping from birds. The pool was clear of scum, but no especially muddy. No fresh scat along the dam. I went up and sat by Otter Hole Pond dam -- nothing was out in the midday heat. I checked the latrines along the East Trail Pond and there was nothing new there and perhaps two wood ducks in the pond. I decided to go to Audubon Pond since, I think, that pond has the most fish in it, is rather shallow with a beaver free lodge. I sent a doe and a fawn into the meadow of what once was Short-cut Trail Pond. The pond below that is virtually dry.
Audubon Pond is so dry that I could walk on the lodge. I saw the holes I so often saw the otters use.
I saw much old otter scat laced with fish parts, and one black scat, that was not at all fresh. There is also gobs of raccoon scat. Many shells had been left on the lodge, some in piles. The raccoon scat was definitely laced with shells. Indeed I found one shell with a fat rac scat right in it.
The lodge is still in use, probably by muskrat judging by some prints. I tried to walk along the shore of the pond but it was rather soggy at points and not much gleaned from the exercise. Not any greater number of shells. The pond above Audubon is down to a pool. So this was a hike with slim pickings, until I found two more ground beetles tail to tail;
they did the rhumba a bit demonstration the sexual nature of the encounter. Then I found a golden green beetle on the path.
I also went up to check Otter Hole Pond latrine on the south side of the dam -- nothing new. I sat briefly. I found a dead snake on the way -- a foot long.
I am neglecting some old friends: in most of the ponds a kingfisher gave me some brief company.
September 21 I headed off at 4 to complete yesterday's tour. Since I wanted to wind up picking apples up on the ridge, I went via Otter Hole Pond. There were no otters there. I took a closer look at the huge half of the oak that fell and noticed the nuts picked.
This must be easy pickings for the deer. Many who don't habituate the lush greens of the civilized end of the island, are foraging under the oak trees. Coming up to the Lost Swamp, I finally got close to a heron.
It is amazing how long it takes for them to get use to humans, just before the time they migrate. Indeed, as I moved closer, two herons flew off. I also flushed the osprey from its usual station. This is a lovely pond to linger at during a golden sunset so I did. I thought it unlikely that beavers would come up, had hopes for a muskrat, but the only theatre was in the trees. First a dove, then a blackbird, then a small hawk that flew off before I could get the monocular on it. The kingfisher flew by. I noticed the patch the beavers made in the hole the otters put in the dam two years ago
-- a reminder of how full the pond is despite the drought. And while I watched the pond, a working chipmunk was stopped dead in its tracks and watched me for a good five minutes before I left.
I saw one small, new but not fresh scat on the north shore slope. If there had not been a fresh scat on the log at the East Trail Pond a few days ago, I'd say a touring male left these scats, but I can't picture one of those tough guys climbing a log to do it. There are fall flowers in the meadow, including a few brilliant golden rods
and purple asters.
And I do not neglect the beauty of the pileworts.
There was quite a bit of activity along the Big Pond dam, even mud pushed up. Most of the tracks and scats were from raccoons, but I saw some muskrat hands, and one print might have been otter. The lodge shows recent activity but no beginnings of a winter cache.
As usual the lodges in the Lost Swamp show no sign of beavers. Every time I see, I say I must come in the early morning to see if the beavers are still there, and they usually are. Then I found the apples and got a few big ones,
leaving several more high in the tree out of my reach. A change in the weather is on the way with perhaps an otter wind that will change my luck.
September 22 a warm humid calm day so I toured South Bay in the kayak. I found only a few traces of P. Magnifica, a few globs of jelly. Now I think the black blobs I saw before were dead algae in the main with the P. magnifica spores attached to it. I couldn't go too far back in the bay as I hit either mud or thick grasses. I noticed a good bit of unharvested wild celery. The geese especially seem to prefer the river grass. I paddled over wide areas picked bare with much murky water. The insects seem as rife as ever, and with the warm days much algae has rebloomed, wisps on the bottom and even one bubbling mass of green on the surface as big as your biggest pizza. While coming out of the shallowest end of the bay, I saw a fish poised next to a plant. A grass pickerel I think, and I also think that this is the fish the osprey prize, the cigar they always clutch in their claws. I went up toward the Narrows and when I reached the grass beds, I saw small perch. I brought some of the grass home and I think it is muskgrass -- it certainly had an odor. Of course, I looked for signs of otters and saw none. To my surprise much of the grass in the shallow aprons of the Narrows had been picked clean. During the windy days this must have been a refuge for the geese and ducks. They were over in the cove north of the Narrows. As I right, a cold front is moving in but evidently the rain is either to the north or south of us. We will be lucky to get a sprinkle.
September 23 facing an otter wind I headed off to find the otters. Not only did I flush five deer off the TIP ridge but brought a doe and a fawn up off their knees. Then there were more deer up on the ridge above Beaver Point pond. I checked Otter Hole Pond first but since there were no fresh scats I didn't sit long. And I decided to go up to the Lost Swamp first. I took the route through the downed poplars so I would come down to the pond with the wind to my advantage. An osprey flew off before I saw it. The kingfisher working close the pond came so close to me that I almost wasted more video tape on it. A blue jay and kingbird flew near me. There were ducks in the far end of the pond -- perhaps migrants because one scooted along on its legs and another kept making short dives into the water. They were large but didn't strike me as mergansers. All this happened too far away for the camera and I began to think I might go the whole hike without a photo. Then I saw the whirligig beetles in their usual place off the mossy cove. In the days before otter watching I could watch these incroyables for many minutes. Today I barely tipped my hat. Then as I walk around the pond I saw a congeries of milkweed beetles on one pod
and a grasshopper on another.
There were no fresh otter scats. I walked up to the dam and then across the upper Second Swamp Pond dam. I thought all would be dry but there is a little stream above and below the dam. What a difference a dam makes. I didn't see any evidence of fresh beaver forays in the upper pond meadow. I did find another muskrat skull.
I decided to take a brief look at the lodge and stopped first at a brown streak in the pond at an old lodge a little further up that rock knoll.
Perhaps at least one muskrat is still alive, I thought. Then at the beaver lodge, all the pond around was muddy and I could hear the beavers mewing inside. I thought of staying, but my quest was otters, so I pressed on. I really expected the otters to be in the East Trail Pond and perhaps they were but for the 45 minutes I was there, I didn't see them. There was no fresh scat on the slopes, but still.... I crossed the dam, shaking up the frogs,
well, a few of them.
September 24 I headed off a little after 4 pm, primarily to see what the Second Swamp Pond beavers were up to. There mid-morning chatting and muddy surroundings suggested that they might be responding to the crisis of low water by dredging around the dam. I began picturing them coordinating round the clock activity... so I went out to see. I went via the ponds the otters frequent. Beaver Point pool remains peagreen and with a fresh crop of duck weed on it. Frogs still escape to it when I approach. Judging by the prints raccoons had just been through. I didn't see any fresh otter scat, but up on the beaten down brush on to of the dam, I saw a new otter scat. The otters had been around yesterday or the day before. I scanned Otter Hole Pond but saw no signs of otters. However, once again, going down the trail from the ridge to the East Trail Pond dam, I found a large and fresh otter scat,
and a smaller squirt of scat nearby, next to, if not under, the log the otters enjoy scatting on. I also saw prints in the mud going into the pond. So I lingered and moved slowly, expecting the otters to swim into view any second, but they didn't. Of course I went up to the Second Swamp Pond rocks with camcorder ready, but all was quiet below. I sidled down the rock and sat just upwind from the lodge under a cedar and bushy oak. All was quiet and at a cursory glance I didn't see that much fresh work. Such was the difference from what I saw yesterday morning that I, of course, worried that the beavers might have fled! Yet I expected them to make their presence known. Indeed, there was no better pond for beavers, with much grass about and plenty of bark left on the birches recently felled. Meanwhile the birds entertained me. Two blue jay searched for acorns in the oak above me. Four small ducks flew in and I soon saw some green in their wings -- green winged teals.
They seemed quite timid, huddled together, not even lowering their beaks to the water. Then two larger ducks flew in, swam toward the teals, then swam away. Eventually the teals a flew about 20 yards further away. They really didn't want to leave the pond, despite my being there. A dozen robins spread themselves out on the limbs of the largest dead tree in the swamp. A heron flew over. After over a half hour of waiting I thought I heard some mewing from the lodge. Ten minutes after
that there was some rippling out in the pond, really a tire-shaped welling of water. Then a furtive beaver head poked out of the pond scum along the edge of the reeds.
Does the shallow pond make these beaver hyper-wary? I stood to go, the beaver did not flinch. I tried to get pictures of the channels etched into the shrinking pond.
I went back the way I came hoping to see otters. And the surface of the East Trail Pond looked different to me. I waited ten minutes and no otters appeared in the still beauty of the sunset. I went over the high ridge to Otter Hole Pond, and looking down from on high, I saw some black draped on the lodge in Otter Hole Pond. I assumed it was a shadow, but the monocular, not very good in the fading light, revealed something more substantial. So I went down the rocks to the pond, flushing a deer who was in the pond, as well as a heron. I looked again at the black ribbon expecting it to resolve itself into an ugly old log.
Instead, I saw a head move. It was the otters! So there are in the old pattern and sleeping where I thought best. Seeing how they were draped on the north side of the lodge, I could see that they would be invisible looking from the south. It was too late to sit and watch them and I didn't want to disturb them. As I slowly moved along, one of the otters came off the lodge and did some fishing around it.
I will try to catch them in the morning.
September 25 Leslie and I head off a little before 8:30. Beaver Point pool looked unvisited, and the otters weren't in Otter Hole Pond. We sat for 15 minutes. A kingfisher came chattering in. On the way to the Lost Swamp I noticed that the pool above Otter Hole Pond looked muddy and the channel up that way looked used, to me. I took the new route to the Lost Swamp Pond, going up and over the poplar ridge. Saw a ripple over near the dam as we came down and then saw the otters at the Narrows.
Two ducks flew off as they swam by. They fished over toward the rocks that slope into the pond. The two pups at least climbed out and did some scatting.
Mom was either quick about it or stayed in the water because she was still fishing. The pups soon joined her and as they got too far away for the camcorder to be of much use,
I looked at them through the monocular. They stayed in the shallows of the south side of the pond, then crossed behind the dam and worked the back shallows. The pups seemed to fish together and Mom a little apart. Once they all splashed in on something. They more or less went through a flotilla of ducks and the ducks didn't seem too alarmed. I was a couple hundred yards away so I couldn't tell exactly how close they got. One, the Mom, I think, propped herself up on a log sticking out of the water and concentrated on a chewy morsel. Meanwhile I relocated myself on the rocks, behind an overturned tree stump, perfect viewing for when they came back. But they didn't come back. I was getting a little sloppy in my observing. The last I saw of them they were working the mud on the north shore but not at the very end of the pond. They never came out of that little cove. I watched for another hour, also making sure they didn't come down the north end of the pond, crossing over to that on land. There is a small wooded ridge about 50 yards in from where I last saw them, but not, from what I could see, a good place to den and groom. Over that ridge there might be more swamps, perhaps some prize pool to clean out, or of course, that could be the trail all the way to Lake of the Isles in the middle of the island, three miles away! I checked the area where I saw them scat and found a nice rolling area
and a pile of small scats, certainly not a heavily used area. I also checked their latrine near the mossy cove and there was fresh scat there. So, since if jives more with my theory of their range at this stage of the pups' development, I think they simply found a place for their first nap at the end of the pond. As I lay by the stump waiting for the otters, I heard some beaver humming from the lodge. A half dozen myrtle warblers also hopped on the trees in front of me. I went home via the Big Pond which seemed to have a great deal of vegetation cleaned out behind the dam,
I assume by the beavers. No signs of otters along the dam. On the way home I glanced down at the Middle Pond which is virtually dry. Real rain predicted for Friday, in two days.
September 26 I went out late afternoon to see if the otters were back, preparing for the night, at Otter Hole Pond lodge. I went directly to the pond, going up the north side. I flushed several deer and fawns and then studied the shadows on the lodge. They were intriguing enough to go closer, but no otters materialized. I went over the ridge to the East Trail Pond and promptly found a fresh scat on the trail down to the pond, and it seemed like there were also fresh otter prints going into the pond. I crossed the creek below the dam and sat up on the ridge, fully expecting the otters to appear. What a long shot! Think of all the places they could be! A few wood ducks flew off, then many black bird flew in a worked up in the pines. There was also a woodpecker banging away. Nuthatches battled on the tree before me and chickadees came through, but no otters, nor beavers for that matter. I left at 6:30 and went back to Otter Hole lodge. The shadows were still there, but no otters. Which doesn't mean that they weren't there. They may have been inside. On the way back, I paused along the South Bay trail to look at a deer and then noticed that at my feet was an almost decapitated gray squirrel,
right in the trail that I had walked two hours before. The head was almost completely off. Since a deer was standing nearby, perhaps we can accuse an owl of the deed, since a coyote might have sent the deer running.
September 28 Yesterday the remnants of Hurricane Isidore came over us and left us with over two inches of rain. Yet, even with the rain, as I hiked this morning my shoes didn't even get way; the ground is not even perceptibly softer. We three more storms like that in the next two weeks. Today, the weather was brilliant sun and north wind, cool enough for a jacket. Looking for otter scat after a heavy rain hardly makes sense, but off I went. There appeared to be nothing new in the Otter Hole Pond latrine next to the dam, so I didn't stay long. I did receive a lesson in the cost of sloppy observation. I saw a large doe slowly crossing the meadow below the dam, but didn't pay attention to her, thinking I'd get a closer look when I went down to check the scat. When I did go down, the doe was no where to be seen. Quite possibly she came to the meadow to bed down. That would have been a nice picture. There was a possible fresh scat or two at the Lost Swamp Pond latrine just off the mossy cove, so I lingered, in vain, and even the ducks were way at the far end of the pond. However, through my monocular I thought I spied a large beaver cut branch pulled up on the large lodge far up pond.
As far as I've been able to tell they've neglected this lodge for the last couple years. I searched the pond edge for the star flower was saw last year, which even grew in the very shallow water, but I found none. There was no scat at the north shore, nor near the dam. With a first frost likely soon, I enjoyed the tall asters on the way down to the upper Second Swamp dam, and discovered some small ones in the aster understory.
Thanks to the rain there is a bit of water flowing through the system, and just below the dam, the streamlet was filled with many brown and black swimming beetles.
I don't recollect seeing them before, and they were too small to get a sense of what they really looked like. I saw none get out of the water. I was curious to see if the influx of water, brought the beavers up pond. I didn't see any evidence of that until I got to the still dry streamlet coming from the principal vernal pond. Down in the pond water was a large sapling partially trimmed. Going up the rock to look down on the lodge, I saw another tree cut. I brought a branch home to help identify it. Despite the tree surviving many years of beaver foraging, it appeared to be tasty as there were several stripped twigs from it in the pond. I sat above the lodge because there was mewing coming from it. I had to the time to sit and see how long the mewing lasted -- not more than 10 minutes. Once again there was evidence of much eating around the lodge. I sat a spell at the East Trail Pond but the blustery wind blew nothing my way, and I didn't find any fresh scat. The pond did rise high enough to cover the field of mud next to the dam that I had been checking for otter prints for the last few weeks. Here again, the beavers have been active, going halfway up the huge rock from which I watch otters and cutting a hophornbeam.
Along the shore they took down one of the thin bitternut hickories. A few weeks ago I was wondering why that tree was a survivor. One plant did seem vivified by the rain, the light springy moss, bursting with a delicate green (ignore the tinge of blue caused by the camera)
I went along the trails all the way to Audubon Pond to which the recent rain added little. The next pond up, however, once again has some water. I saw no scats but innumerable fish fry along the shores that were choked with pond plants. A few goldfinches were around. I returned via the Short-cut Trail. The pond below that dam, which was virtually dry, looks like a pond again,
and there's a little water in Short-cut Trail Pond. No sign of the poor squirrel. The storm came with a northeast wind, so we lost about six inches of water on the river, making it quite low. Thanks to the rain, perhaps the wind will blow back more water than we had before.
September 29 I headed off a little before four to see how the Meander Pond beavers are faring. Though they are usually out early, I decided to get to the pond a little after five, take some furtive pictures, for it is easy for beavers to disappear in that collection of narrow channels through the tall grasses, and get home early for dinner. Of course, I checked the old otter hot spots on the way. Beaver Point pool has doubled in size thanks to the recent rain, and a doe was grazing nearby.
I was careful to get a video of her leaping over the meadow. But there was no sign that otters have been back to the pool. I also got a glimpse of a buck with nice rack of antlers at the foot of the TIP ridge. And, once again, all was quiet up at Otter Hole Pond. I sat amazed as always: it looked so unlikely that any mammal, much less an otter, could flourish in the shallow pond, and I replayed, in my mind, all feints and foraging of the three otters which I saw there just a few days ago. I went up and over the ridge to the East Trail Pond, scaring more deer. There were no fresh scats on the trail down. I sat and heard and saw some splashing on the other side of the pond -- wood ducks. Then a pair of males flew in, and then another pair swam in. This pond is a major gathering place for wood ducks. The males had their brilliant lines and colors on. I continued a check for scat along the shore, and saw none. No progress with the recent beaver work. I approached Meander Pond along the foot of the high cliff to the north of the pond. The upper end of the pond looked dry. There was much fresh beaver work and the channels of the lower pond were muddy. I propped myself up on a rock out of the wind and with a pretty good view of everything, and waited. As usual the chipmunks were alarmed, one provided a nice view of its twitches in tail and chest when it chipped.
Not to my surprise, a beaver swam slowly down the pond
and dove into the burrow next to the dam. I wasn't sure what it had been doing, though I am certain it was not carrying on the obvious tasks which include cutting down that old mostly dead ash in what would be the middle of the pond if the pond were not almost dry. About 10 minutes later a beaver came out of the burrow and swam along the dam, but I lost it behind the grasses. I figured that was it, since its so easy for beavers to disappear in this pond. Still, I moved slowly on my way below and along the dam, the way back to my trail, admiring the work the beavers had done to girdle the trees
and widen the channels, though I don't think the mud siding was as dramatic as it was last year.
I began to hear gnawing from two or three points. I saw something walking along high ground on the other side of the pond, but that proved to be a raccoon who briefly climbed a high tree. I soon identified one point of gnawing, a small beaver on the edge of a pool of water behind the dam. I was quite close and exposed, but this beaver apparently had no experience with humans. It briefly went into the grass and brought some blades back to the pond to eat.
But mainly it dove and nibbled, dove and nibbled.
Then I noticed two beavers on the edge of the main channel heading up pond. One looked a little bigger than the other. As I moved the little beaver I was watching started swimming back toward the burrow lodge, and the big beaver started swimming toward me. I thought the viewing was over. There was a brief mewing but no splashing, and a little beaver came back to the pull and once again dove down for chunks to eat. I think this was a different small beaver because it looked smaller, and, like baby beavers, its whole body floated high in the water,
and it did more than just hump down in the muddy water. It kept its tail up out of the water when it dove.
I kept moving along slowly and as I did I saw that two small beavers came out of the water, and one climbed up on a downed tree trunk to get a better smell of me.
They must have smelled me, I was 10 yards away, but they didn't flinch. One retreated back into the pond, the other studied me longer and then returned to nibbling, soon, both together.
Were these babies under adult supervision, or was a callow yearling supervising two babies? I do think there is a big beaver around. On some of the trees I noticed cutting a half foot from the ground, juxtapose with cutting two to three feet up on the tree. If there was a large beaver out, essaying large jobs, I didn't get an inkling of it. Judging from the heavy lumbering all around, I know there is a large beaver or two in the colony. Apparently the little discreet pools of Meander Pond, rather than cause for panic, provide perfect play pens for the little fellows.
It was getting dark fast, so I moved on, the beavers, evidently, none the wiser that I had been there. A final note, as I stepped below the dam, gingerly so as not to alarm the beavers, I almost stepped on this spinal column about as big as my shoe.
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