August 8 I walked over to Audubon Pond which I haven’t seen for well over a month. Then the hose the park slung over the embankment to drain the pond had not made a dent in the water level, but today the drain below the embankment which the beavers had mudded over is now high and dry.
The hose is still going over the embankment but no water is draining out of it. Easy to check because they mowed down all the milkweed and other plants, so much for encouraging monarch butterflies. The pile of mud around the old drain completely covers the rather long pipe with holes all along it that was supposed to keep the pond drained, not that it needs unnatural drainage. On my way to the pond I checked the old otter latrines. The slope above the old dock looked like it had been scraped by an animal, but I saw no scats. The ledge above the docking rock, where I last saw scats along the north shore of South Bay, looked unvisited. As usual I went down from the Audubon Pond embankment to the otter latrine overlooking the entrance to South Bay. There were trails in the long grass, now falling over, some trails coming down the slope and two coming up from the water. I didn’t see any recent otter scats, but I saw a spread of fish scales, the remains of old otter scats.
I took a photo of how this pile of scales is situated on the slope. I’ll check photos of scats I took during the spring to see if this pile came after that.
Then I went back to Audubon Pond, and walked around it, west shore first. It looked like the lodge in pond near the park bench had a recently stripped log near it, but from a distance I couldn’t be sure if it was an old ash log bleached by the sun. I soon saw fresh beaver work along the west shore, far from that lodge. There were stripped sticks and twigs ready for nibbling in the water near the rivulet that drains the vernal pools in the woods.
And the bank lodge looked occupied, not that there were many remains of many meals, but there was a mud trail up to the back of the lodge. It looked to me that the beavers had added logs and mud to the back of the lodge, rather building it up. Again, I’ll have to check old photos.
And I found a just cut sapling in the woods above the bank lodge, a shag bark hickory. Strange thing to eat with all the vegetation growing in the pond.
I didn’t see any signs of beaver foraging along the north shore, but I didn’t walk that close to the water. Going out to the park bench I saw that the extensive muskrat burrows in that little spit had been dug into.
Too much water still in them to get my camera down in them and get some dramatic photos of muskrat digs. Now that the pond’s water level is lower, the park bench is once again high and dry. Nothing seems to have moved through the tall grass around it. From that vantage point, the logs exposed at the nearby lodge looked old. But when I continued walking around the pond, from the east shore, the log looked fresher.
Probably no beavers in there since there were no nibbled sticks around it. The bank lodge is in the shade and the water is not so low as to defeat the entrances to the lodge. There was at least one active muskrat burrow along the causeway forming the east shore.
But the big story at this pond are the frogs. This has been a very good year for frogs every where. Green frogs seemed to rule the shady west shore, and bullfrogs everywhere else.
Swamp milk weeds are doing well everywhere, and at this pond it was easy to get close to the butterflies latching onto them.
Perhaps the dullest butterfly visiting the most striking flower now in bloom.
August 9 Last night coming back from my walk down the road, I snapped some branches off trees leaning over the road, a small maple branch as well as an elm and a basswood. I left them at the Deep Pond dam where all was quiet. I walked down in the morning and saw that all was gone but maple leaves -- and, to me, they look the most tasty. I also went down to the Third Pond to get a chair we left there. I startled a doe and two fawns. I saw a doe and a fawn down at the Deep Pond a week ago, so I don’t think these fawns are twins, just does sharing their duties. It was a cloudy morning, always threatening rain, and it got darker in the early afternoon. After lunch I took a walk around the Last Pool and Boundary Pond, and in the gloaming this beaver development really shines, so to speak. The browns of the well dredged water as well as the greens of the duckweed and frog bit are lambent. Unfortunately the mosquitoes thrive in the dark humidity. I saw a large beaver print in the muck at the end of the Last Pool, but in the photo I took, the print didn’t register. It came at the end of the big trail through the scrubby woods above the pool. Despite the fallen poplar, beavers are still shopping for smaller trees. The smallest of the three poplars they’ve gnawed hasn’t been touched for a few weeks, but the forest of little prickly ashes around it steadily diminishes.
Then I walked out on the trunk of the downed poplar. Divide the crown into three parts and then the beavers have completely cut away the part to the left
In the middle
And nipped what they could from the part to the right which arches over the water.
They have a nice set up for gnawing on the middle part of the trunk. Two large branches are nestled next to a small moss covered island.
Looking down the channel, there is still plenty of muddy water in it, and we are getting to the middle of August when during most summers all the pools here dry out.
But walking around the rest of the pool and Boundary Pond, I didn’t see any more fresh work. The water level in Boundary Pond is getting low. There are several measures of this, rather than wading in a sticking a ruler down. The water is retreating behind the dam
And the cut ironwood that fell right next to the lodge in the late winter and that was flooded over in the spring and for the most of the summer has re-emerged.
I took another photo of the piles of sticks and dredging material the beavers are leaving behind the dam. I should try to see if these piles are still growing.
Then I went up on the ridge and discovered some new work. The beavers cut an elm which was hanging precariously in a neighboring tree.
I did them a favor and pulled it down.
The tree is quite convenient to the lodge and it’s all down hill.
As I walked up the west shore, frogs of all sizes jumped into the water. One lingered and the photo reveals more than the frog. Duck weed is growing around the frog bit. That’s probably what the beavers are eating when they browse through the frog bit.
The days when Boundary Pond was one noble expanse are ending. Once again it is resolving itself into two pools connected by a channel
And the long channel up to the Last Pool, as it gets shallower, shows the extent of old dredging and fresh heaves of mud indicating that the beavers are still dredging.
Actually that photo is of the Last Pool channel where the fresh mud is easier to see. I should note that when this channel was dry, the beavers had little trouble walking up and down it. So this might be better described as preparations for the winter, the convenience of going as far as possible up the channel when it is covered with ice. I’ve already shown how the beavers like to nibble sticks at the mid-dam of the Last Pool. Now they are doing it at the Last Pool dam proper too.
And the collection of unstripped sticks at the mid-dam looks bigger. More old photos I’ll have to check.
The water in the channel is low enough so I can see where they cut back a root to make it easier to use the channel
Finally I took a photo of the diminished poplar crown from the first angle I saw it from.
More photos to compare.
August 10 I headed off at 3pm on a very hot and humid day to sit out at the Lost Swamp Pond, and perhaps go elsewhere if nothing started happening at that nice expanse of water. I went via Antler Trail to the South Bay trail -- a good day to avoid the sweat of crossing along the Big Pond dam. At the little causeway by the south cove of the bay, always a favorite place for birds, I saw a redstart in the thick bushes under the big basswood.
I took the shortcut over the ridge to Otter Hole Pond. Under the tall trees I saw some bird feathers which are fun to see at this molting time of year. Don't have to expect a carcass nearby.
As I came down to Otter Hole Pond, I flushed an osprey off a high dead oak on the south shore of the pond. The tree over looks a lush meadow and a few diminishing plant-choked ponds, but the osprey don’t mind perching away from the waters they fish. I didn’t check the Second Swamp Pond dam, didn’t want to get distracted. There is a danger is hiking with a purpose, you might miss something, but sometimes its best to be like a bird and get to your perch quickly and just stay there and let the drama come to you. However, I did check the otter latrine just below the Lost Swamp Pond dam. I wanted to see if otters have visited since I was last here a few days ago. As I walked along the north slope of the pond, five ospreys flew off the dead trees in the pond. Two of them circled over the pond, as if loath to go, but they did move off. Two herons also took flight, and a kingfisher changed its position. Piscivores all, no herbivores in view. And at first glance, only a king bird among the insectivores. No otter had visited the latrine since my last visit, so I walked around the pond to the shady rock above the mossy cove latrine on the southwest shore of the pond, hoping to at least see a muskrat. The pond was quiet. A mallard swam in from the southeast expanse of the pond. I saw two male wood ducks almost in their striking full colors in the far northeast corner of the pond. I saw a heave of water coming out of the bank lodge below me and expected a muskrat to surface, but none did.
I began developing a plan B -- checking the beavers’ work at Meander Pond. Then a minute before I decided to leave, I saw a small muskrat swim across the pond heading to the north shore. It probably sensed me -- I was appreciating a wind against my naked back, because it took a long swim underwater to get to the far shore where it did some nibbling, and when it seemed like it was heading back toward me, it dove again, and I didn’t see if resurface. The sun drove me off my perch, and I moved down the rock to get a better view of the north slope. I began thinking that maybe the muskrat I saw came out of the bank lodge near me so I kept looking over there to see if I might see a heave of water going back into the lodge. Instead I saw a beaver swim off the bank just up the shore from the lodge and promptly, and quietly, dive under the water. It didn’t resurface. The last time I was here I saw a nice little clearing in the grasses along the shore, just the size of a beaver. It is possible that the beaver had been sitting there the whole time I was on the rock, but I think it made the heave out of the bank lodge. That lodge is quite rotten on its shore side, but it looked to me like the part angling into the pond had been repaired a bit.
It was easy to stick my camera down through the gaps in the upper part of the lodge, so I could get a view of how cozy, though not perfectly protected, it was under the logs down by the water.
On my way to check the bank lodge I inspected the otter latrine below my perch, from above it looked as roughed up as usual and I assumed was as it was before. Hard to exactly remember the chaos of otter scrapings on the shore. I was surprised to find two piles of scats new to me, but looking rather old. I took a close-up of one because it looked like it had crayfish parts in it. The photo shows small bird feathers.
So I best go back and take a closer look at this scat. Now and then I find feathers in scats, but not often. The dirt just below the rock I sit on seemed clawed up a bit more. I can never get a good photo of this, with the digging and a mound of vegetation at one end of it, though seldom any scats. I tried again and the photo was better than my usual attempt.
Meanwhile a large flock of swallows moved over the pond, mostly swarming over the middle the pond. I decided to try to get a photo of the reflection of the swallows in the pond, thinking they might show up better than with a blue sky back ground. They never got close enough but I did see that the reflection in the water kept getting whiter, and soon a thunderhead forming in the northeast sky entranced me.
I was able to see a rather dramatic updraft of clouds. I was fascinated by how disks of clouds turned into domes
And then another disk formed on top of the domes
Then that flock of swallows, 30 to 50 of them, gravitated to a dead tree by the dam and swirled out in front of the thunder clouds. I could fancy that the thunder I began hearing was just some swallows breaking the sound barrier.
I also noticed that it was getting cloudy behind me, an innocent enough looking flat of clouds that got grayer toward the horizon. A storm was heading our way too. I still had sunshine when I struggled through the cattails and cut grass on the Big Pond dam. It was really a serious challenge and I didn’t bother looking for beaver signs. I had to interpret deer prints, the best indicators of where the thin strip of mud in back of the dam was firm. I made one mistake. Then turned around and took a photo of what I had gone through.
The spillover section of the dam is always firmer so I had leisure to take some photos. The vervain is brilliant and the knotweed or smartweed is coming up below.
I was rather sweaty when I got to my perch and there was no shade and the growing clouds didn’t promise relief -- and I heard thunder from the northwest. The dimming light, I thought, might allow a good photo of the meadow below the dam -- bright light washes out much variety in photos, and I think I was right.
I scared one deer on the way home.
August 11 I toured South Bay in the kayak in the late morning. Geese are flying. I did see mallard ducklings. Thanks to the high water level all of the bay and its two coves are still accessible even this late in the year. Usually I go down the south shore and then over to the willow latrine on the north shore of the south cove. Today I went to the willow latrine first. I forgot my binoculars but the humidity was such that the lens probably would have fogged up as I studied the herons along the shore. A beaver seems to be taking advantage of the high water. There was more gnawing on the willow, one large branch but off a low limb. But I don't think a beaver is using the willow lodge, as I call it. I continued paddling down the north shore of the cove and saw a small chunky log cut off the willow floating along the edge of the marsh. I could paddle to the end of the cove, which I usually can't do at this time of year. Not much happening there. No more beaver work, but the water lilies in the bay are the best they have been in years. There are many blooming, evenly spaced throughout the bay, and all easy to get to. Paddling up the south shore of the bay, which has a shallow rocky bottom, I saw some small perch, but not as many as I see some years. I paddled across the bay and checked the large willows almost at the point, that the beavers gnawed in other years. There was a bit of fresh gnawing there. In the north cove, once again I didn't see any otter signs, nor beaver signs on the south shore of the north cove, but at the end of the cove I saw an alder branch floating in the water and saw that a beaver had cut it. I don't think it floated down into the cove because I saw a fresh cut in a clump of alders along the north shore of the bay well below the old dock. Paddling up that shore, I saw more work but had to do a double take because the beavers were not cutting alder. I think they are getting a type of dogwood, at least it has narrow leaves and berries. In early July, on a hot sunny day like today, I saw three large map turtles on logs. Today I saw a medium sized map turtle with a very small one right next to it. I was able to get my hand a foot from the little turtle before it slipped into the water. Then I saw two large map turtles and got close enough to one to admire its huge back flippers and get the impression that there is a lot more turtle than shell with map turles. I didn't see any more beaver work up along the north shore.
We went to our land in the evening and I showed Ottoleo and his friend Zoe the beavers, except that there were no beavers out at the Deep Pond. We hurried down to Boundary Pond -- it was threatening to rain and then started drizzling. Although it was rather dark we could see the beavers in the pond. I took them to the chair on the ridge above the lodge and the beavers seemed as interested in us as we were in them. We saw two kits around the lodge, and at least two adults. No tail slaps greeted us, but it was clear the crowd had the beavers in a tizzy and they more or less just swam around in circles. The mosquitoes were in a tizzy too and we hurried back to the house for pizzas.
August 12 Foggy morning, while the others weeded the garden, I snuck down to see if the Deep Pond beavers ate the small aspen sapling we left there last night. No. But it looked like there was more leafy branches collected on and around the bank lodge. As I brought some leaves in for mulch, I saw a small snake curled in it.
We also saw our first cicada shells.
When I took the photo I didn’t notice the smaller borer. When it got dark Leslie and I went out to look at the meteor shower. We saw a dozen meteors or so. There were also a nice variety of crickets singing, from sweet chorusing rollers to rasping soloists. We heard the whip-poor-wills before we came out, sometimes three at once. Then when we were out on the road enjoying the night, we heard one whip-poor-will and the behind it a family of coyotes howling. But the new night sound for us was a cuckoo calling from our wooded ridges, off and on for 15 minutes or so.
August 13 The beavers at the Deep Pond still haven’t gnawed the poplar sapling I left at the dam two days ago. So it behooved me to walk around the pond to see what they might be doing, if they were still there. I have been bemoaning their not eating any of the vegetation in the pond. This morning I saw clear evidence of that, muddy water behind the dam and the milfoil cut back.
That is new. Walking around the pond I saw a trail wide enough for small beavers, going up to the little pool of cattails that is now dry.
I saw nipped sports on an alder stump, some old some recent. Of course, muskrats could have done that. Perhaps I saw two fish jump. Birds worked the bushes around me. For a few minutes a catbird and a towhee seemed to be in sync. The former screeched and then the latter wheeeee’d immediately afterwards. Then two redstarts flitted about, briefly beak to beak so perhaps one was an adult feeding the other, a fledgling. Then I eased my way down to the lodge. And there seemed to be more cut honeysuckle on the lodge, as well as some stripped sticks in the water in front of the lodge.
But the days of the beavers coming out of the lodge when I walked on it are over. No beavers came out in the pond. I was able to continue my walk around without going up the slope. The flats beside the inlet creek are just dry enough to support my weight. Now the Joe Pye weed are not alone in looming high above me. A few cattails there are 8 feet high and some meadowsweet a foot or so smaller. Thanks to my eyes being raised, not sunk to looking at the muck as they usually are, I saw catbird on a shady branch behind all this seasonal exuberance. It looked like an adult keeping an eye out for fledglings in trouble.
I couldn’t say that the other beaver trails along the inlet creek looked recently used. I think they are dredging the canal a bit, though the mud I am seeing might be old work exposed now that the water level is lower.
However, I did see some recently cut willow, leaves still green, at the mouth of the creek along the shore of the pond. Walking up on the high embankment I saw where the underwater vegetation had been eaten into.
And outside of one burrow the vegetation had been cleared away showing the muddy pond bottom.
Perhaps the muskrats are in there. Finally down behind the east side of the dam, I saw the leftover of a vegetarian dinner floating in the water, but I can’t be sure if it was left by muskrats or beavers, but I bet the latter.
Around 4pm I braved the heat, humidity and happy deer flies and mosquitoes and walked down to the Last Pool and Boundary Pond. I walked out onto the poplar trunk and chronicled more branches cut. A beaver had climbed up on the trunk and started cutting a branch that stuck out perpendicular to the plane of the pool.
And the beavers are now gnawing bark off the large rotundity of the trunk.
They are getting the most out of this tree, getting to more of the bark on parts of branches they probably won‘t cut.
Yet they leave logs behind, little easy to carry logs, when one more bite will free it.
They still have not shown any more interest in the three other poplars they have gnawed and that are still standing. Plus there is one more large poplar a few yards farther back in the woods. I walked down the east shore of Boundary Pond and noticed another elm cut and this one fall so that it blocked the channel up to the Last Pool, not a big trunk though so the beavers could easily swim under it.
The water out in the pond seemed a bit lively, and looking around I saw an adult beaver still as a log in the channel in front of me,
and then I saw a kit over at the edge of the grasses in the wider portion of what used to be Log Dam pool. This looked like adult supervision of a kit, good to see. I got my cameras out and just when I got the camcorder running the adult slapped its tail and dove, and the kit disappeared. Was the adult trying to protect the kit? Perhaps not. The adult surfaced with its nose just peaking up above the elm log blocking the channel, very good hiding place. But the kit surfaced in the pool of water right in front of me, between me and the adult. It floated like a log, and faced the adult beaver. Then swam back toward where it had been eating grasses. Then the adult swam up the channel away from us. But both seemed uneasy, so I retreated and as I walked down the pond, I think I saw the adult swimming by me in the channel heading for the lodge, and the kit using the trails in the grasses on the west side of the pond also heading toward the lodge. When I got to the dam, all was quiet in the pond. I got up on the ridge west of the pond and took photos of the trimming they did on the elm I pulled down for them.
And they have half cut the elm behind it.
Then I sat in my chair, and to my surprise the beavers remained active. Indeed, I think I saw three kits. First one came out and used the channels along the east end of the pond to get back up pone. My guess is that that is the one that saw me earlier. Then another kit came out, hardly looked at me and swam up and down the pond and then up again.
And then a kit, that looked smaller than the other two came out, and made a study of me, though it frustrated my study of it by positioning itself behind a big tree trunk when it swam over to the shore below me. There was also at least one adult out, and gnawing inside the lodge. The third kit did not stay out long and dove back into the lodge. However, to prove there were three kits out, I needed to walk up pond and see the other two. I only saw one kit, and it looked like it was eating the frog bit leaves,
and one adult. The adult was well up pond and slapped its tail when I was still rather far away, so perhaps it was giving a signal to the kit or kits. Then the adult swam up to the kit for some brief hums and nuzzling and then by it. The kit continued eating the frog bit. I hoped to see a kit around the poplar crown, but didn’t. I did walk by another elm they cut along side the Last Pool channel.
They seem to be well on their way to cutting it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment