July 25 another humid day heading to the low 80s. I sawed at my saw pit but realized I would overheat before I made a dent in the pile of logs. So I headed to the woods resolved to cut down a tree or two, just one is an accomplishment. I thought there was a dead ash near where I was cutting before but it seems to have sprung to life -- ash trees can look very woebegone in the winter. I cut two small dead ironwood, enough to get me into a sweat. So it became a perfect day for walking slowly around the Deep Pond. It is not a big pond, but it is drenched by the sun, and fed by little lazy soaking springs that moisten channels of mud down to the pond. A jungle of low plants and bushes grow around it, especially when we’ve had as much rain as this year. But there is an area of trimmed grass at the dam, where the beavers have sat and munched.. There is a trail into the thickness below the dam, a potpourri of green dwarfed by Joe Pye weed.
Then behind the dam there are fronds of the ferns the beavers are nibbling, as well as some stripped aspen sticks.
I am not sure where the many straight pale greenish stalks on the pond bottom came from.
Then I walked back along the west shore of the pond. There is a small patch of blooming pickeral weed but I couldn’t get an angle for a photo. No water lilies this year, yet I never see these beavers diving for pond vegetation the way beavers usually do here. I checked the first fern patch they raided, where I found the jack-in-the-pulpit. Not much activity there, along the ground. The elecampane there now tower over the Joe Pye weed, and me, about 8 feet tall. The grape vine is trying to keep up too.
Then I walked over the knoll to the other side of the lodge. I thought that would get the beavers out but it didn’t. In the shallow water, I saw the parts of the ferns they didn’t eat
Not much woody fare there. Since I see fern fronds left behind, I get the impression that they eat the stalks. Would be nice to get a close up video of them eating these ferns.
Not sure where they’ve taken the aspen branches I gave them a few days ago. The lodge looks completely untended, but I think that’s where they den.
I walked over to the inlet creek which the beavers, since no water is running in, have kept open. I could see a trail on the opposite side
and there was a trail at my feet on the west side of the inlet leading to a clump of willow bushes and I could see that some had been nipped.
I went up the slight slope behind the knoll and then down it, getting a view of one of the ferns patches they browsed through and the trail back to the little canal off the inlet creek.
There was a trail connecting that patch to others though the deer might have made that. I saw doe and fawn over here one evening. But I think the beavers are eating the ferns. I’ve seen them eating the ferns from a distance and I can see that the stalks are nipped neatly not gobbed the way I think deer would handle such delicate plants.
The inlet creek more or less peters out upstream but here and there I can see where the beavers waded into the vegetation along it to get to fern patches.
No signs that they are going up into the woods where they could find trees to cut. Still no beavers out when I came around to the high east shore of the pond, and no sure signs of beaver activity there. There were several trails up from the pond and into the bush, heading to the nearby woods, but no beaver work along the way. I walked around to the other end of the dam and sat for a few minutes under the shade of a huge honeysuckle, with the wallow the beavers made last year behind me. It’s dry this year. The pond in front of me had a muddy streak that muskrats leave, and some stalks of plants muskrats eat
But why don’t I see any muskrats?
July 26 In the late morning I headed down to the Deep Pond and paused to break some aspen saplings to feed the beavers. The sapling I tried to break was right next to a hornets’ nest. I got two stings, and had to pluck off the hornet latched onto my thumb. I got a nice swelling in my right hand and right arm, which I found later made me more buoyant when I swam in the river. After ministering to my stings, I resumed my walk down the road, startling a lone goose down at White Swamp and a gallinule in the grasses by the road. Walking back to the Deep Pond, I snapped off a small basswood branch hanging over the road, and left that for the beavers. Ottoleo came to the land in the afternoon and I gave him a tour of the Boundary Pond. We walked out into the downed poplar crown and it looked more trimmed, though not in a methodical fashion. Another large branch in the water had been stripped a bit and then cut.
Presumably, since I haven't seen poplar branches littering the way back to the lodge, I assume these branches are taken into the lodge, as I saw once. I continued showing Ottoleo what's been happening, all the while expecting to see a beaver in the pond since it was after 4pm, but we didn't. Ottoleo crossed on the dam which was easy to do, and easier on the shoes. I've never walked on the dam, more evidence that I regard it as work of art! On the west end of the dam I saw a false crane fly and wanted to show Ottoleo its space-lab like design. But I lost sight of it when he came over. On the shady east side of the pond he had seen a little orange frog, but we lost sight of it when I got over with the camera. We went up the ridge and I sat him in my chair and in a few minutes we heard some humming from inside the lodge, then some gnawing. We saw a modest array of ripples on the side of the lodge by the dam. I thought a kit might be out. The beaver stayed under the spot where two downed elm, cut months ago, crossed, a perfect spot for it to look and smell to see who was walking around the pond. But there must have been something worth eating there because the ripples continued. It went back into the lodge without showing itself, neatly swimming under water so we couldn't see it. The humming and gnawing continued, and then a beaver came out the east entrance and showed itself, before making a lazy dive. My guess is that we were seeing the two adults who for the past few months seem to be the beavers that always come out first. Ottoleo helped me carry back a long ironwood trunk that I cut yesterday. He saw another small frog. We dropped the log but the frog got away before I could take a photo, looked like a spring peeper. After dinner I walked down to the deep pond, cutting a nice aspen branch for the beavers. I threw it in the water and sat by the dam, but no beavers appeared. The whip-poor-wills entertained us in the evening, briefly surrounding the house with their call.
July 27 I went down to the Deep Pond in the morning and found the aspen branch gone and the basswood branch limp in the water, untouched. Last time I left one, the beavers in the pond took it, another indication that these might not be one of the beavers who were in the pond earlier in the year. Two kingfishers were about, once again, one seemed to command the air, chattering all the way, and the other kept rooted to a branch. Then I heard a commotion in the grasses just behind the dam, and a raccoon followed by three raccoon kits splashed in the shallow water, gained the shore and hurried toward the knoll. The mother went well ahead of her charges. In the afternoon, I realized I could no longer use the persistent heat and humidity as an excuse for not collecting firewood for the winter. It is summer after all. So I headed up to the Teepee Pond area. I have forgotten exactly where all the dead ironwoods and ash trees are so I moved slowly under this season's rather healthy canopy of leaves. Ironically, looking for death in the midst of such over abundant life is not a bad way to get a grip on what summer is all about. With enough rain, it is almost all consuming. In the same way, sometimes it looks to me like the vegetation around the Deep Pond, for example, is consuming the beavers, not vice versa. Some of the dead trees I found were entangled in honeysuckles and buckthorns I managed to cut an ironwood and an ash, but saw that I had to trim some trails so I could get the logs back to my sawing rock by the pond. I was away in the evening so I couldn't bother the beavers.
July 28 our hottest day of the year but I kept on schedule. I sawed logs for an hour and then went up to trim some trails around the Teepee Pond. As always, I sat quietly at the pond for 15 minutes. A turtle, about 6 inches long, nosed up, probably a painted turtle. One kingfisher flew over the pond. I heard one green frog down by the dam. Then a phoebe landed right in front of me, and then a larger flycatcher, jittery at first, struck me as a fledgling. It had a reddish tail, a bit like one of the thrushes, but its breast was white shaded green and it kept fluttering about like it was catching bugs flying in the air. Only its landings seemed a bit awkward. I heard some one note calls high in the trees, and the bird near me kept looking up. Then another bird, seeming more capable, though the same size, landed next to it. They both flew off, and the one note calls soon ended. Perhaps a flock was moving through.
Both the Teepee Pond and First Pond are quite muddy. The vegetation in the Teepee Pond where I sit is just about cut back to the shore,
a milfoil, I think, and a leafy viney water plant. However, at the First Pond, the knot of vegetation in the middle of the pond seems to now be getting the better of the whatever had been eating it (I suspect turtles.)
I trimmed a trail back to the little pool above the First Pond. I was surprised that there was still water in it. After I finished my trimming -- too hot to saw, I went back to the little pool with my cameras. The pool no bigger than a pitcher's mound, and not as deep as a pitcher's mound is high,
had tadpoles spaced evenly through the water. Perhaps a third of them were moving a bit. The rest seemed rooted either by the sheer terror of being alive, or by the warming water.
I saw 4 or 5 tiny green frogs, one on the surface and the others on the muddy bottom of the pool. There were also a few salamanders not much longer than an inch.
Last year while inspecting the pool, I was surprised to see a large Blanding's turtle coursing through it looking for things to eat. Today I saw a large crayfish, probably at least 6 inches long.
It didn't seem to have any interest in the tadpoles in the pool. It worked the grasses in the water along the edge of the pool, by "work" I mean using its claws. It looked like it was bringing things to its mouth, but I'll have to study the video to be sure about that. Then it came up on the mud around the pool, and went into a hole, a cave, so to speak, which I assumed it had dug out.
Not sure if it was trying to escape the sun, or seeing if it could catch other things trying to escape the sun. It backed out of the cave, it moved rather well going backwards. Then it clawed a bit under a rock; then back into the water. I walked around the pool, trying to get a better angle on how it worked the mud around the pool. I saw several more holes dug into the mud. When I tried to get close enough for a close-up photo, the crayfish rocketed in reverse and evidently buried itself in the mud. When I say "rocket" I mean that all claws and legs came close to the shell leaving what looked like a projectile. One wasp was tailing the mud, close to and oblivious to the crayfish, and there were some larger frogs, head up on the grass, also oblivious to the crayfish, and to me. After the crayfish submerged, a frog stayed up even though I loomed over it.
I headed off to see the Boundary Pond beavers at 7:30, going down mosquito enlivened Grouse Alley (still moist though no standing water) so that I wouldn't scare any beaver working in the poplar crown before I got a chance to see them. But at the end of Grouse Alley, I go up the little ridge to get a view of the water around the crown. I saw ripples and then I thought I saw a small beaver, a kit, ferrying a stick down the the channel. The rippling around the crown continued, and then I definitely saw a kit looking at me. I kept looking for adult supervision, but saw none. I expected the kit looking at me to hurry down the channel toward the long way to the lodge. It feinted that way and then swam back up around the poplar crown. So eased my way down to the channel and parked myself beside a large tree close to where the channel tunnels under some roots. I figured I might get a good look at the kit up pond when it finally swam down, though kits in this colony seem to quickly master the art of swimming long ways under water. Then I saw the other kit swimming up the relatively wide channel that goes from the Last Pool dam, now breached, up to the the tunnel under the roots. The kit saw me, hesitated and then stopped. While staring at the kit, the other kit swam by me underwater and then surfaced down in the channel. It too took a long look at me. Each kits seemed to independently realize I was there and each independently swam down the channel into Boundary Pond. One nosed up on the bank on the way, like it wanted to get a bite. I stayed where I was because I knew that if no adult beavers got in the way, the kits might well swim back to get another look at me. Beaver kits have an inveterate curiosity, more so, I think, that otter pups, raccoon kits, baby porcupines and even fawns that especially when they are with another fawn can make a close study of a nearby human. I finally saw an adult beaver wading into the grasses on the east side of the upper end of Boundary Pond. I also saw the kits swimming back up pond. One had a fright when that grass browsing adult came back into the pond. Kits also seem to be quite fearful of some of the adults they share the lodge with. I didn't hear the kits whine, which suggested to me that they didn't want to share their sighting of me with the particular adult that bumped into them. Anyway, one of the kits did swim back up the channel toward me, nor far. Then the other swam up and of course went farther. However, it was not brave enough to swim by me. Both kits swam back into Boundary Pond, but still no humming or whining. But the adults down pond realized that something was up. One swam through the Last Pool dam and poked its head up looking toward me. Then another swam into the wide channel and came closer to me, rather close actually, then retreated to the middle of the pond. Then a third beaver came into the pond and also came close. The first, and most shy, adult swam closer to so that three adult beavers were in the channel a few yards from sniffing away, though none fo them pointed their nose at me as beavers often do. All three showed me broadsides, their port side, eyeing me with their left eye. The beaver closest to me dove and then just as it left the wide part of the channel it slapped its tail. The beaver now close to me, dove with a frightened slap, and the other beaver turned and left.
I've never experienced anything like this. It was as if none of the five beavers was quite sure what to do about me. The kits' indecision is understandable. I think the cautious evaluation of the three adults suggests that they were two year olds or yearlings. The matriarch or patriarch would not have been so indecisive. I headed up the ridge and went down to my chair above the lodge. Getting a bit higher and out of the closeness of the scrubby part of the woods relieved me of the massive swarm of mosquitoes that had been around me, though I had to settle for the usual swarm. I hoped I had beat the kits back to the lodge, because if I did, and if I heard whinning in the lodge, then there was a third kit. I soon heard whining and gnawing from the lodge, but it sounded like at least two kits were in there. I didn't see any beavers swimming around the lodge or in the channels that I could see. So it seemed like all the beavers had gone back to the lodge to regroup. Twice an adult beaver came out, swam around the lodge clockwise, them came up and took a look at me, and then dove into the lodge. The adult that always seems to dredge came out. it's my candidate for the patriarch of the family. I kept hearing plenty of hums from the lodge and continued gnawing, but no great exodus of beavers from it. We had a brief shower and I thought that might bring the kits out. I think I did see one come out, but it evidently didn't stay out for long, certainly didn't come over to look at me. The cedar waxwings were around again. Finally the biggest of the beavers came out, the matriarch, I think. She swam over to, she swam right below me, nosed up, then dove and swam up the channel. I sat for another five minutes thinking her exit might inspire all the kits to come out, but instead they kept whining. I think they were under orders to stay put and other adults were enforcing the order. So I headed back, and when I got close to the crown in the Last Pool, I heard some heavy gnawing, I bet the mother was cutting off another large limb to bring down to the lodge. I didn't neglect the Deep Pond beavers. I took down a big aspen branch -- I wanted to take something large enough that I could see where they took it. Both beavers were in the pond. The closest slapped its tail after I toppled the big branch in the water, and it tarried in its approach. The other beaver came right over and began eating leaves and gnawing on a twig. The other beaver swam over in serpentine fashion, bit off a twig and took it a few yards away from me.
July 29 I went down to the Deep Pond in the morning and saw that the beavers left a good bit of the aspen branch at the dam
But I’d say they ate more than half, and trimmed most of the leaves. I also walked out on the poplar at the Last Pool and saw more progress in cutting away the crown
But also where they had nibbled sticks while still in the confines of the crown, which I assume is a major comfort zone for beavers.
I also brought up leaves from the “aspen” I give to the Deep Pond beavers and compared them with leaves on the poplar in the Last Pool. They are both the same size, but the latter are heart shaped, definitely different. Both seem to be different varieties of aspen, but distinguishing one from the other as aspen and poplar seems to make sense. (all aspens are in the poplar family of trees.) I didn’t take a complete tour of the pond, but enough to see that the beavers have cut another prickly ash.
As the trunk gets larger the stickers are fewer and far between.
The many branches bear the brunt of defending the plant, probably from deer. No defense, yet, from beavers. In the late afternoon, I checked the lively pool of tadpoles, etc., above the First Pond. It had lost half of its water since yesterday. It was a warm but cloudy day and without the sun the tadpoles and frogs seemed more lively. The tadpoles seem to metamorphose into lively little green frogs but the process seems slow. Tomorrow we might mount a rescue and take all we can to the First Pond. Then I went down to the Deep Pond and sat by the dam. Soon enough a beaver came out into the pond and it swam right over to the remaining aspen branch.
It was not exactly shy, since it was right below me, but it was cautious.
When I raised the camera to get a photo, it moved back and cocked its tail ready for an escape. I was more subtle and it cut a stick off the branch
carried a couple yards down the down the dam and started stripping it.
As the video whirred, I observed and fought off mosquitoes. Then the other beaver appeared and made slow round about progress to the aspen. It was easy to see that it wished I was not there. It came up to the other beaver, still stripping the stick. That beaver hissed and then kept up a steady hum as if to warn the other beaver away. What startled me was that it hummed and gnawed at the same time. For years when I heard humming and gnawing in a lodge, I counted that as two beavers. Now I know better. Both the humming and gnawing were persistent and simultaneous giving the impression that the humming was more akin to purring than a noise coming from the mouth, but that seems unlikely. I suppose the humming comes from the nose which may account for both its high pitch and volume. Beavers have big noses. The beaver warned away got close to the aspen and me but kept its tail cocked and couldn’t quite relax and nose into the aspen. Then the other beaver finished and came over to bite more off the aspen branch. The more timid beaver swam off and then when it came back the bolder beaver made a dive for it. So I stood, picked up the branch and threw it farther out in the pond. Both beavers fled, diving in fright but the bolder was soon up and back at the branch, cut off a stick and started gnawing. When the other beaver swam closer, the beaver in control swam around the branch warning the other beaver off. I left, hoping my presense created the tension and that once gone both beavers would enjoy a bite of aspen. Two kingfishers were also about, a fledgling being instructed ; much noise but not much evident progress in giving the fledgling a hang at catching fish.
July 30 car repair day for me, so Leslie rescued two buckets of tadpoles and salamanders and some small crayfish and some of the metamorphosing green froglets. I’ll take a look tomorrow. Amazingly the raccoons haven’t discovered the pool, though they did discover our house and roof last night treating us to their trotting on the roof and what might be described as chortling whines. Then in the morning I smelled skunk poop and saw a large pat of it outside our window. However, the skunk gave us no stink in the night. We went to the island in the afternoon and I couldn’t resist kayaking out into a strong southwest wind and managed to get over into South Bay. Despite it being the middle of our tourist season, most of the waves were true wind generated waves not much influenced by speed boat traffic. But the islands west of the headland break up the wind the cause varying sheers so that I fancy there is some magic way to get through the hills and valleys of water. Of course, with the wind at my back I could move quite smartly along. As I headed down the south cove two osprey flew over the end of the bay. One got a fish, but I think it skimmed a dying fish off the surface of the water, rather than diving into the water. One osprey flew high over the other and the higher one fluttered and the lower one fled. I saw one Caspian tern and one heron, but this was a good day to wade into beaver ponds well out of the wind. I checked the willow lodge/latrine and saw no signs of beavers or otters. And I saw no signs in the north cove either. Only two painted turtles were out. At the end of the north cove there was a concentration of blue damsel flies. Osprey, terns and herons fly into the wind. Most of the damsel flies were flying with the wind but at a much slower speed so they must have been flying in reverse into the wind. Back at our land I went down to watch the Boundary Pond beavers a little after 6pm. There were no ripples around the crown and I didn’t notice any beavers out as I walked down the ridge to the chair with a view of the lodge.
However within a few minutes of sitting there, a beaver swam down the channel from up pond, came over to sniff me and then went into the lodge. I heard more gnawing than whining. I usually get the impression that beavers come out one at a time, but this evening there were three almost simultaneous swellings of water. I soon could account for two of the beavers that came out, both adults. One began stripping a stick behind the east end of the dam, a bit far from me, and the other seemed to eating something amidst the frog bit, if not the frog bit itself, up on west shore of the middle section of the pond.
Then there was another heave of water around the lodge, and an adult surfaced with two large stripped logs in its mouth. It was clearing lumber out of the lodge. It dove right back into the lodge. I was impressed by how little humming I heard from the lodge, and suspected that some of the kits got out and swam under water up the channel. I got some confirmation of that when one kit swam down the channel and without the usual pausing to acknowledge my presence it dove into the lodge, and once in the lodge there was no whining to greet it. A pond centered on one narrow channel helps give the impression that kits are quite efficient and self sufficient. They come out of the lodge and zip up and down the channel, almost like they rule the realm and the adult beaver wandering about looking for food in the shallow sides of the pond are doing the kits’ bidding. However I only saw one kit, and all totaled, I think I saw four adults, and a possible fifth. It would be nice to see all the kits together. Are beavers the only animals that don't like to gather around their offspring and show them off? When the beaver browsing the frog bit swam back toward the pond, there was some commotion. When I focused on it, I saw an American bittern move away from the beaver and then in its slow stately fashion catch at least two small tadpoles, fish or frogs in about 15 minutes of watchful posing. It had a nice way of wagging a tail feather after each catch. Walking back up the ridge, going home to my dinner at 7:30, I didn’t notice beavers in the pond, and no ripples around the crown. I went closer to take a photo,
and now, after highlighting how the beavers worked within the crown, I could see how smartly they trimmed all the branches toward the outside of the crown. But I also stripped sticks well away from the crown.
July 31 after morning chores we went up to the pool above the First Pond. I bet that the water would be gone, and I was right.
The raccoons finally found the pool
But here were things wiggling in the mud so Leslie went out to see what she could rescue.
Not much that I could see. I dumped the mud into the First Pool, and despite the commotion I was making, two small green frogs stayed rooted to the vegetation they were hanging on.
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