September 19 to 25, 2009

September 19 we went away for a few days and missed a morning of rain yesterday. Last night there was some frost, and more threatened tonight, which necessitated picking and covering in the garden. I studied the Deep Pond to see if a beaver might have come back. Before we left I noticed that the poplar branch I had left down at the dam over a week ago was gone. I couldn’t see where it might have gone so had no clue who might have taken it. Today I saw no evidence of a beaver cutting trees, but much water vegetation has been trimmed and there are muddy trails in the pond behind the east end of the dam and the west end of the embankment. Probably muskrats. However, there are interesting waves of mud along the shore below the west end of the embankment and I am not sure if that is from a beaver pushing it up as it fashions a burrow, or if it’s just because the water in the pond is so low. Beavers and muskrats have been burrowing into the embankment for years, and with the low water they may be digging lower entrances up into the network of burrows. I didn’t have my camera when I walked around the Deep Pond, but had it when I took a quick walk around the Last Pool and Boundary Pond. As I expected the Last Pool has almost shrunk away but when I came down to it, I saw the cut end of a sapling staring me in the face

The beavers still come through the pond and up into the woods to find trees. The trail in the mud right next to the meager channel of water looks well used.

I walked above the end of the pool, checking the standing poplars for fresh gnaws -- none. Instead a beaver has begun gnawing on an elm near the poplars. Good idea, save that if cut, the elm will likely get hung up in the poplars.

I walked down the east shore of the pool and pond and I thought I could see elements of a strategy. It was as if the beavers eased up on their shopping and began cutting trees most convenient to the channel. For example, the low gnawing on the root of a big birch next to the upper pool of the Boundary Pond represents the shopping approach

A little down pond, I saw where the beavers had cut down and half cut down two elms right next to the channel.

And then a little ways up from the lodge, again next to the channel, they have half cut another elm.

I shouldn’t jump to conclusions until the beavers actually cut down all these elms and begin trimming them. As I walked down to the end of the pond, a dozen or so ravens began flapping out of the trees above me. I had never caused such consternation (I joke, ravens never look consternated,) then I saw that I was perhaps not the prime mover of the ravens. A screeching hawk flew above the pond, perched briefly on a tree to the east of the pond and then flew back to a perch west of the pond, and four ravens flew off their perch lower in the trees.

The hawk kept up a steady screech, briefly echoed by another hawk farther away. The ravens did not swarm and attack the hawk as they could easily have done. They seemed to be in a good mood as they flew off. The local butcher is once again dumping remains nearby. They are probably all well fed. Along the west shore the of the pond, the beaver have not touched the crown of the ironwood they cut that is leaning against the ridge, but they have almost made a large log of the trunk.

I bet there is more cutting higher up the ridge, but I’ll have to check that later. I walked along the west shore. Looking back at the lodge, it seemed that most of the frogbit that carpeted the flat above the lodge had been subdued by drought and nibbling.

I should take a closer look at that. The beavers are gnawing and almost cut down another misshapened maple next to the pond.

I got a closer look at the elm they cut and saw that it had a rotten core.

I took photos of the state of the channel up to the Last Pool

And the Last Pool itself is now nothing more than a muddy channel of water.

I took my usual photo of the well gnawed poplar trunk at the end of the Last Pool and did a double take. The decrowned poplar had sprouted maple leaves! No, the beavers cut a spindling maple that fell across the poplar trunk. One maple branch was cut and in the channel waiting to be tugged down pond.

Since the path going up from the pool is so worn the beavers must be cutting trees up in the woods, but I was late and couldn’t look for them, much less wait for the beavers to come out. We should have warm nights next week and we’ll spend a night here to get some last earfuls of the crickets.

September 20 cold last night, probably down to 40, but it warmed up quickly throughout a bright sunny day. I headed off to tour the beaver ponds and South Bay at around 10:30, calculating that a 3 hour hike would tell me all I needed to know. As usual the drought has taken the greatest toll on the grasses up on the granite plateau, but down in the shade of the woods just below the plateau, I saw a young doe and a young two point buck. Then as I moved farther into the woods, I saw three more deer. Walking along the South Bay trail I looked for otter scats and beaver work, not sure I’d see either. The river’s water level has dropped about two feet in a month and I figure the bay is getting less comfortable for both beavers and otters. However, just up from the old dock, I saw that a beaver has been cutting the alder again. I had noticed activity here many weeks ago, and there was a cut sapling with dead leaves, but there was also a cut sapling with green leaves.

One year we had beavers that adapted well to the shallows. They built a lodge around the old dock, remnants of same still remain, and they even built a dam just below the inlet creek. So I’ll keep my eye out for a beaver adept at living in a shallow bay. Then at the docking rock latrine farther up the north shore of the bay,

I saw a line of scats, washed out and bleached with only bits of crayfish shells remaining.

There were several scats and only one had any black in it. Raccoons also like crayfish and when water is shallow they do wade in the water for their food. But this is a place where otters have long scatted. When I got back on the trail, up from the water, I saw a spread of crayfish shell bits.

An otter didn’t leave these. And the shell bits seemed smaller and more spread out, so let me say that raccoons are daintier than otters even when the meal is crayfish. I checked the rocks where the creek from Audubon Pond enters the bay, which had been a popular spot for beavers to gnaw on willows. That has ended, and no otter visits. I did see what I took as fresh mink scat, though it wasn’t twisted at all.

And I saw some crayfish remains in them. I think the scats were too neat for otters and too small for raccoon, so mink. I still had high hopes of seeing otter signs at the latrine above the entrance to South Bay. I did see trails in the dying grass,

But no new scats. I headed up to Audubon Pond with an inkling that there may have been drastic changes. I saw tall grasses washed back along the outlet creek of the pond, suggesting that the park maintenance people cleared the drain and sent down a surge of water. I was right. The pond was the lowest I’ve ever seen, and not only had the drain been clear but all the mud around it had been clawed back probably by some mini-backhoe

and left in a pile as if the powers that be had not yet decided what to do. So far they put two new large pipes through the causeway forming the east shore of the pond, not sure why. The drop in water levels has forced the beavers to relocate into the embankment. At the same time the low water revealed how they have been managing their burrows over the years. They had dragged a large hickory branch and other smaller branches over to what I assume is their new burrow.

The art of beaver burrowing requires the burrow to begin below the level of the water and then rise so that the beaver can find air at the end of the burrow. I could see how that worked as the now uncovered low part of a burrow still had water in it

and the dry end was now rather too high and dry.

I expected to see this embankment riddled with burrows, and I didn’t. But the vegetation, especially the bur marigold has rather taken over and perhaps is obscuring old holes. Otherwise it was easy to see what the beavers were up to. There was a muddy trail up

and over the embankment leading to an ash tree almost cut down.

And down on the muddy new shore of the pond there are marks where the beavers dragged logs into the pond.

This is a relatively safe place during hunting season, so I may spend some evenings here to see how the beavers are faring. Then I got to feast my eyes on the now completely exposed bank lodge. On my way, at the point along the west shore of the pond, I found an interesting canal and burrow, in the shade so it was difficult to photograph, and difficult to explain. I got the impression that it followed an old root and the hole, or burrow, if you will, went straight down. The more I think about it, the more I think it just a depression and a hole where a large root rotted. Maybe I’ll get a chance to look at it again and ponder it some more. The bank lodge is high and dry, which makes it seem even more like a sloping jumble of logs

I was able to walk down in front of it on the mud flat and stand on a big boulder that more or less divides the entrances to the lodge.

I must say I really couldn’t get a sense of where the beavers went in and out. Obviously lower than the photo I got. I couldn’t get off the rock because the mud around it was pretty soggy. I think the rush of water out of the pond was about a week ago, the flats would have been drier if the water had been drained a while ago. I put my camera down and took a photo of a likely entrance

Which revealed, as photos of the inside of a beaver lodge usually do, a featureless flat of dirt carved out of the bank.

But more fascinating to me was a burrow beside the lodge. Early in the year I noticed that a fairly large shag-bark hickory near the lodge was tipping over but not from any beaver cutting it. Now I saw that the beavers dug a huge burrow around it.

Now it is nicely concealed by the grasses and bur marigold.

That flower which thrives when ponds loose water was pulsing with bees, and butterflies.

But when the pond was full that burrow around the hickory may have even allowed beavers to enter the bank lodge proper if, as I suspect, there is a hole going up at the end of the burrow. I didn’t see any fresh beaver cutting along the west shore nor the north shore. The lodge just off shore from the bench on the north shore is almost high and dry.

This is the most exposed that I’ve ever seen this venerable structure that has been in operation off and on for ten years at least. I admit to not quite understanding the long slope of logs on the right side of the lodge. Over the years I have seen beavers and otters enter the lodge from that end, and otters seemed to prefer climbing up on the lodge from that end. But over the years, it has seemed clear to me that the beavers and otters, and even the muskrats live in the high end of the lodge. I often see such a slope of logs in lodges along the river shore, so perhaps it is a response to the depth of the water. This pond was dredged by machinery so perhaps the beavers are imposing their own natural slope. I expected the muskrat burrows in the point behind the bench to be exposed, revealing an extensive network that gave muskrats a shortcut as they toured the pond, but lush vegetation covered everything.

The burrows I could see seemed rather small compared to what the beavers dug out on the west bank. The shallowness of the pond did not seem to give the frogs any pause, especially the small ones. I didn’t notice any bullfrogs. There were also a few painted turtles sunning themselves, which, over the years, has not been that common in this pond. I pressed on to Meander Pond. On the way I saw a doe in the woods, and then as I walked on a fawn scampered away. So when I saw mud behind the dam I sagely ascribed it to deer wading in the water to get some moist greens.

I even saw hoof prints. Then I saw a muddy trail going over the dam down to the freshly cut tree. A beaver has been there too.

But there wasn’t that much beaver activity. The only other sure sign I saw of one having been there was the gnawing on an exposed hickory root.

The water in the pond is getting rather low, even in the channel near the lodge that they had been using.

But it was still muddy. I think beavers are still using it. However, looking over the knoll at the south end of the pond, it was hard to imagine that a beaver swam through that to get to the trees they cut earlier this year.

And I saw no fresh work in the woods south of the pond. I planned to continue on to the Lost Swamp and Big Pond but I had spent too much time walking around Audubon Pond.

September 21 I woke up at dawn in our house on the island and went off in the cold morning, about 40 degrees, to check on the otters on Picton Island. Ottoleo saw them about a month ago, and I had been remiss in not getting out there sooner. I paddled with a light southeast wind at my back, as well as Venus and the impending sun, and it was nice looking over my left shoulder and seeing Orion. There were few birds out in the morning dark. No terns, and the gulls just lumps on rocks. Couldn’t see a cormorant even if one was there. I went through the Narrows and paddled toward Quarry Point which reddened with the dawn. Off to my right, in the middle of Eel Bay, a loon chortled my way. Flattered, I responded, then a loon hooted off to my left. Good year for loons. The only sign of otters that I saw in Picton channel was a dozen gulls flying around, some dipping down into the water, and some contention among them suggesting there was something worth fighting over -- remains of otters’ meals? Otters are messy eaters. I saw a heron and an osprey, usually there are more. No muskrats, and after a slow paddle and drifting along the north shore of Picton, no otters. I paddled back closer to the shore and hardly recognized their old den. The water has dropped about three feet since I was last here, and what were inviting underwater caves and holes were now uncomfortable looking ledges in the exposed granite rocks. As I paddled back the rising sun blinded me and that seemed to make it easier for me to see the black hump coming out of the water in front of me. An otter. I got out my binoculars in time to see an adult otter scoot up on the rocky shore and disappear under the low hanging honeysuckle bushes. Then I saw two pups follow the adult. Another adult brought up the rear. The first motor boat of the morning was raging down the channel and cutting close to the shore to round the island. That fourth otter turned and dove into the water, a protective reaction to the rude intrusion? No, it turned again and rode the boat’s wake up on the rocky shore. I waited for 10 minutes to see if they would come back out. No. I heard some noise on land -- the bushes kept me from seeing anything. I scanned the water behind me, but saw no otters. I paddled up to where they went on shore and saw what looked like a trail under the bushes, and the remnants of a dead willow trunk marked the trail, no scats on it though. I didn’t see any scats along the shore, even when I paddled around Quarry Point and looked up at their famous otter latrines. I didn’t see any otters down in the bays south of the point, so I assumed that the otters had finished breakfast and went back to their den for a nap.

We went to our land in the afternoon, and the cold morning turned into a very hot afternoon. I walked down to the Deep Pond dam and saw a little pile of logs in front of one of the burrows in the embankment on the opposite shore of the pond. I assumed it was an old cache of logs revealed by the water getting low, but I decided I best take a closer look. My assumption was right but I saw other possible beaver signs. The deep water there was a bit muddy; the underwater vegetation had been cut back; and there were streaks of mud where muskrats at least had begun making burrows lower in the embankment. And there may have been a push of fresh mud on the shore, which a beaver would do. So muskrats are around, still, and perhaps a beaver still visits but if that were the case I should see a nibbled stick somewhere. I forgot to bring my camera down for this tour. However, I took it when I headed down to my chair above Boundary Pond at 5pm. There were no beavers out, and no noise from the lodge. There was a small pile of just cut saplings in the channel north of the lodge. I knew they were just cut because many still had green leaves.

At 5:19 an adult beaver came out and then swam up the channel several yards and fished out a stick to gnaw, then it continued up

to where I could no longer see it. I heard a few hums from inside the lodge, but no other beavers came out. Not that I was bored. The ravens were around again. They’ve just moved back and the other day were rather quiet and not too creative in their vocalizations. Today I heard some gurgling sounds. And I heard what sounded like a real cuckoo and then I heard what sounded like a raven’s imitation of a cuckoo. From where I sat I noticed some bold beaver work so I walked down the ridge to take photos of that.

I was careful not to walk too close to the pond. Bad enough for the beavers that their pond is so low without me spooking them. Not that the beavers are cowering in their channels. I saw a sapling just cut down half way up the ridge.

And they are still walking out on what had been frogbit flats, but now they are segmenting the downed trees into portable logs.

After I got above where I thought the beaver was probably lurking, I did dip down to get a photo of what two years ago I called Log Dam Pool which now just looks like a bit of a bulge in the narrow channel up to the Last Pool. I thought the light of the cloudy afternoon might afford a good photo.

Perhaps I was right. Then I couldn’t resist showing the light in the tunnel where the upper Last Pool channel narrows.

Rain threatening. The beavers need it.

September 23 we decided to spend the night at the house on our land. We’ve had warm days and warm nights, good for hearing crickets and peepers. I walked around the Last Pool and Boundary Pond in the mid afternoon. We did have some rain with clouds and it was threatening to rain again, but not enough to bump up the water level of the beaver ponds. I took a photo of a red oak, about three inches in diameter that a beaver cut on the rock ledge just west of the end of the Last Pool, but branches and leaves are still there.

I took photos of the poplar crown because it looked like there were fresh gnaws in the middle of the old gnaws.

Once again I will have to study past photos, something, of late, that have no time to do. A beaver is gnawing the poplar just behind the one they cut down -- as luck would have it looks like they found a hollow spot in the trunk which may make it easier to cut down.

This was a windy day and leaves were falling with every gust. That accounts in part for how clear it looks behind these two poplars, but the beavers still continue to clear the prickly ash too. The big elm nearby that they had tasted has some more gnawing but no real cut yet. Now where they cut saplings, which they’ve been doing all year, they also seem to make a point of tasting big trees nearby.

Tasting might not be the right word, and “testing” might not be right either. Are they assessing an engineering problem or a meal, or both at the same time. And with three kits on the loose, how much of this new gnawing is just misplaced energy? Of course, my current theory is that the adult beavers are keeping the kits away from the heavy lumbering to save them from having a tree fall on them. But so far the work on the bigger trees around the Last Pool is tentative. Where the bigger trees are being cut down is along Boundary Pond.

One large elm, say a foot in diameter, fell in the middle of the channel, truly a hazard to anything that might have been in the way.

The trunk of another slightly smaller elm has almost been gnawed to a toothpick and, I think, only the fact that the tree lost most of its leaves, has kept it from being blown over by the brisk winds we are having.

I walked on the dam to get to the west shore of the pond. I took a photo to show the channel along the east shore that the beavers still manage to use.

Beavers like to have alternate routes. There was a little more gnawing on the ironwood they cut down on the west shore. Supporting my theory that the kits are confined to this safer end of the pond, is that there are a lot more stripped sticks floating in the pond just behind the dam and near the lodge.

There are some saplings lined up in the channel just north of the lodge.

I sat in my chair for 10 minutes and nothing stirred but the ravens flying over to get a closer look at me. Walking up the west shore, I saw another ironwood in the process of being cut. However, the beavers seem to have the most relish for one of the maples they cut. It is completely stripped and half cut into logs.

And there seems to be some steady gnawing on the elms.

One smaller elm log blocks the main channel, and is only a bit gnawed.

Since I have a new camera I took a photo of the end of the Last Pool even though it looks about the same as last time I took a photo.

Then I walked up the trails above the Last Pool and came upon three small maples that they cut -- 3 to 4 inches in diameter, and mostly trimmed, segmented and hauled away.

This work was well away from any water, about 30 yards up where woods and meadow are vying for control. It strikes me that there is a good bit of willow and dogwood up here that the beavers have not touched. I think they prefer saplings or they are simply saving the smaller fare for the winter or next spring. Perhaps we’ll soon find out. I came back to the ridge above the lower Boundary Pond at 6pm. For the hour before we had a nice shower, but the woods were not as wet as I feared -- enough leaves have fallen that there was not as much of the dripping that follows a shower. I got my chair set with out disturbing anything but a couple wood ducks that I heard but did not see. I think a beaver had already been out because I saw a long log in the channel above the lodge that had not been there before. I didn’t have to wait long for a beaver to come out and it was the adult that likes to swim a bit under water before surfacing. However, it did not swim up pond, but began gnawing on the saplings lined up in the channel.

When it dove back into the lodge, I heard a kit hum and when it came back out it was soon joined by a kit, munching in the same bundle of saplings, only the kits seem more interested in the leaves and smaller twigs.

When the kit dove back into the lodge, I heard more humming, a duet. Maybe the diving kit had woken up the other two. When the adult dove it did not go back into the pond, but up the channel too far for me to see where it stopped. I make it sound like the beavers only dove when they wanted to go back to the lodge or elsewhere in the pond. Actually they frequently dove around the saplings. There are more saplings sunk in the pond and they seem to browse down there almost as readily as they do on the surface of the pond. At times they bob in the water, head down. I expected the other kits to come out, and they did. First, I think, the first kit that I saw came out again accompanied by one of the other kits. Then when that second kit dove back into the lodge, the first kit swam up the channel. That didn’t quite nix my theory because there was an adult beaver up there to supervise, and that was a biggest kit who has almost a month’s more experience that the other kits. Then the second kit came out accompanied by the runt.

When the second kit moved, the runt soon seemed to be in a panic and followed. Both stayed close to the lodge. No interest at all in the now drying frogbit or the duckweed that was still greening much of the water. Well, I was telling myself a nice story about these beavers, which was relaxing. Soon enough a second adult came out alone. This was the one that makes a point of looking at me when it comes out, which it did, then it dug into the saplings lined up in the channel. I thought the adult that swam up the channel would soon come back with another sapling or two, but it didn’t. The first kit came back, empty mouthed, swimming rather fast. But it nosed up to the adult in the saplings, hummed a bit, the adult moved away a little bit and the kit dove and surfaced below me, but not to look at me. So when it made a body splash before it dove into the lodge, I don’t think it was reacting to me or trying to scare me. Several times I have seen adults use that body splash when they wanted to get kits out of an area, or other beavers for that matter. I didn’t see or hear it, but I bet the adult up the channel body splashed the kit back down to the lodge. In a pique, the kit body splashed on its way to dominate the other two kits in the lodge. I soon heard humming, a bit vociferous, from the lodge. And then suddenly it was too dark for photos, almost two dark to see, even though the rain clouds were breaking up. I think the best time to get some sense of a beaver family in its happiest time is the first three weeks of September. Then after the Equinox the diminishing light makes me long for March when I might start getting good looks at the family again.

September 24 I got a chance to complete my tour of the Island beaver ponds on the afternoon of a spectacular fall day. I went to the Big Pond first and on my way through the woods on the ridge I spooked a garter snake. I’ve seen many garter snakes sunning as the cold mornings gave way to a warm afternoon. But this one was in the woods and as it hurried away from me, it had a dead leaf cupped over its head,

Probably just an accident it didn’t have time to shake off. The Big Pond was beautiful but relatively quiet, no more wood ducks scampering away from me.

The grass on what I call the otter latrine at the south end of the Big Pond dam still seemed worn down a bit.

I followed a perceptible trail into the grass and found a relatively fresh smear of black otter scat.

The water behind the dam looked well used, not necessarily by an otter. Muskrats usually clear out the vegetation so that you can see the mud of the pond bottom.

As I walked along the dam I saw enough grass trimmed and dollops of mud on the dam to trust that beavers had also been on it, not just muskrats. No more otter signs though. I kept looking out at the new lodge the beavers built, well up pond. Something was on it and I soon saw ducks flap off it. If ducks are on a lodge I don’t think otters would be in the neighborhood.

In the meadow off the north end of the dam I usually see a closed gentian or two at this time of year, and I did see one, but botched a photo of it with my new camera. As I came down to the Lost Swamp I saw many geese in the west end of the pond and I also saw a cormorant sunning itself on the log near the geese.

I eased down to get a better photo and that scared the geese who all flew off roiling the pond. I thought the cormorant had flown off with them because I could no longer see it. I thought that strange because cormorants are usually slower than geese when they take off. I took a few more steps toward the pond and then the flapping cormorant made its typical low trajectory, almost can’t get up out of the water take off. It flew up into the northeast section of the pond. I sat briefly on the rock overlooking the mossy cove latrine. It was around 5pm when I might expect a muskrat or beaver to be out but none appeared. I expected to see new scats in the mossy cove latrine

And I did, three good sized black scats.

I move to a rock farther up pond to get a better look at the big beaver lodge in the southeast end of the pond. I could see something around the lodge, and finally decided I was looking at some of the geese that I had put to flight when I first approached the pond. When I looked at the photo I took of the lodge, I saw that an osprey was perched on a dead bush near the lodge.

There were two interesting differences in the look of the lodge. There seemed to be less vegetation on the lodge. Of course it is dying back, but maybe napping and rolling otters helped it along. And there appeared to be the start of a cache pile on the right side of the lodge, suggesting that the beaver or beavers had moved out there. There certainly weren’t signs of recent beaver activity at the bank lodge below me

Or the lodge in the middle of the western end of the pond or near the dam.

That cutting with green leaves in front of the bank lodge looked like what I saw there before. And as usual as I walked around the pond to the dam, I saw trails in the grass but none of the usual nibbling beavers leave behind. I expected to see new scats at the otter latrine next to the dam, and I did.

These scats looked a little older than the ones in the mossy cove latrine.

And a good bit bigger. I walked down to the now rather small Upper Second Swamp Pond. From walking on the Big Pond dam I knew that the drought and changing season had tamed the ferocity of vegetation on dams, so I had no excuse not to cross the pond on the dam, which would make it easier to check the otter latrine on the north shore of the Second Swamp Pond. Given the amount of scat I saw around the Lost Swamp Pond, I figured an otter must have at last gone down to the lower ponds. The dam looked easier to walk on but the now dry meadow below the dam looked easier, so I walked there, planning periodic peaks up at the dam to see if I could see any signs of muskrats using it. But then down in the meadow, I was startled to see old otter scats in front of the hole into a clump of meadow grass.

Could an otter or two have used that hole? As a den? Searching for a bite to eat? I didn’t have the courage to stick my new camera into the hole, but I did take another photo

As I headed down to the rather meager inlet creek going down to the Second Swamp Pond proper, I saw more scats

And then saw another array

With some scats black, suggesting that otters were here and then came back again.

But did they go down the rather thick vegetation, say a band of 20 yards of it, to get to the Second Swamp Pond proper?

Or did they come down here after a night in the Upper Second Swamp Pond lodge?

Or, is this patch of meadow itself sufficient for foraging and napping? I didn’t see any scats in the old otter latrine on the north slope down to the pond. I could easily walk along the grasses that grew up as the pond shrank from its old shore.

And as I came up to the beaver bank lodge below the knoll, I saw two spreads of otter scats, relatively old,

one plastered on the granite rock that cradles the lodge.

So? This certainly brings back memories of all the pleasant hours I watched otter families tour these ponds at this time of year. The last time I saw a family here was 2005. But when families crowded their lives in these ponds -- can’t travel too far with pups, I always found latrines with that day's scat, which would give me a clue as to where to come out the next day to look for otters. Haven’t seen any clues like that yet, but I certainly have to get out here more. From the lodge I took a photo looking toward the dam, and must say I didn’t get any sense of any animal using it

I learned years ago that otters are attracted to drying ponds. One summer when we had a bad drought, the muddy banks of the channels leading to the dam had piles of otter scats. None today, too much grass, and there were no scats on the dam, and looking back from that direction, the pond even looked less used -- very shallow with nothing churned up.

Then I went back to the Big Pond, heading home more or less the way I came. I saw a muskrat out in the vegetation covered water, just like last time I was here.

But no beaver sightings today.

September 25 since I saw a closed gentian in bloom yesterday on the island, I set out to find out how the flowers are doing at our land. This requires crossing the inner valley then going up past the Turtle Bog, through the Juniper Jungle and then down a trail under the birches to the boundary with the dairy farm south of us. All the little ponds on the way were dry so I didn’t nose around them. I didn’t clear the trail under the birches something I should do. A few birches have fallen and the honeysuckle bushes are stretching over the old path, though in the shade the bushes are not too vigorous. I saw what looked like eggs outside a cocoon.

I blush to say as I try to get the hang of a new camera, I concentrate so much on trying to get the photo right that I don’t try to figure out exactly what I am seeing. But any probing looked like it might damage what might be going on -- though the whole assemblage looked dead to me, perhaps from the cold nights we’ve had recently. The closed gentian flourish along the edge of the pasture but always in the shade. There didn’t seem to be many more than usual, but this year I found the blooms in perfect condition. And the other purplish blue flowers, asters and that little weed we’ve never identified are still blooming.

Alas I had trouble getting a good close-up.

And was not too successful trying to frame a photo with purple asters and closed gentian both in it.

But a photo never quite captures the allure of this elusive flower. It’s the last bloom I look for and the bloom looks like the beginning, like a seed, as if the whole gaudy show of spring and summer had folded its tent in these radiant blue pods about to launch themselves to warmer climes and times. I walked back up the ridge and found the trail through the junipers and down toward the old apple trees still in good shape -- few honeysuckles, and the current drought probably helps. Many fern are brown.

I bumped into a bush I met when I cut the trail a year or two ago only this time the huge stickers

were accompanied by beautiful berries.

I’ll have to check my old journals to see if I discovered its name. I got up to the ridge and walked along the south rim noticing that the trees block any view of the valley, not that there is much to see, only farms and the road. Looking out from my own land, I just don’t like to see nature tamed. Anywhere else I’d probably think it a pleasant view. Then I sat on the west ledge of the ridge looking down on my wooded valley. A hairy woodpecker was about and then a red squirrel came down a large hemlock that the porcupines had almost trimmed of all its branches. The squirrel parked itself on the end of a small broken branch

And began an incredible tail shaking and butt churning rant. Much of the time it was looking at me, but it also kept looking down at the ground. I thought I heard an animal on the ground, or did the rapid low pitched purring tones coming from the squirrel’s body seem lower than the high pitched chatter? I heard another red squirrel behind me give the usual powerful and controlled noise wishing me away, so surely what I was hearing in front of me couldn’t be directed at me. The squirrel made a dash down to a lower branch. I think I heard something in the leaves move away, but quietly considering the provocation. Then the squirrel in front me jumped down to the ground and left without a sound. I went down to the valley to check the beaver work around Boundary Pond, primarily to see if the brisk winds we’ve been having blew down one of the big elms the beavers had been gnawing. Yes.

And it fell right across the channel, rather making me feel more confident in my theory that the adults had limited the range of the kits because they feared one of the big trees would fall on them.

Otherwise there was no new lumbering that I noticed. From where I was standing just west of the channel between the two pools of the pond, I could see where the channel along the lower east shore merged into the main channel

I was also in an excellent spot to take a photo showing how the frogbit now out of water seemed to brown away into the dirt

From a distance it looks like the beavers ate most of it, and deer and muskrats, but up close I can see the remnants of the leaves. Ravens seemed to be everywhere I went and now they are getting more familiar, some of the raucous comments seem to be directed toward me.