September 26 clouds started moving in so I dropped my work and headed off for a tour of the island beaver ponds at 2pm. Usually I go later, hoping to see beavers, but today I was tracking otters. On my way to the Big Pond, well off Antler Trail, I saw a small buck, two points. I had seen him before just off Antler Trail with a doe. He was slow to run off so I got a photo of him as he paused to look back at me.
I didn’t see any new scats in the otter latrine at the south end of the Big Pond dam, nor did the water behind the dam there looked churned up. When I stood to study the pond and marsh, first one wood duck, then another, and then another noisily flew out of the marsh landing in the upper reaches of the pond where one mallard of a floating flock greeted them with some quacks. Walking along the dam, I got the sure sense that muskrats had been around but I paid more attention to the flowers, bur marigolds and vervain. The latter is fading fast with most stalks bare or sporting only one tiny bloom instead of the usual cluster. The bur marigold never got too bold around this pond because the pond never lost much water.
I felt obliged to take a photo of the water behind the dam just to show that it looked used, like I said, probably by muskrats. They should be building a winter grass lodge soon,
Enough deer have walked along the dam that it was easy going, plus the cutting grasses have collapsed. Of course I kept looking up the pond for otters, but with so many ducks up there, I doubted otters were around. The Lost Swamp Pond looked quiet when I went down to it, and I couldn’t see any new otter scats in the mossy cove latrine, nor did I see any signs of beaver activity around the nearby lodges. I brought binoculars out today and studied the lodge in the southeast end of the pond. What I thought might be the start of a cache did not look like much at all. As I walked around the pond, I didn’t go up the north shore of the Lost Swamp Pond, but up the south shore of the upper pools of the Second Swamp Pond. There used to be an otter trail over this ridge with latrines next to both ponds. There was no trail today, but looking down on the upper pool of the Second Swamp Pond, I saw a bit of a trail through the grasses toward an area of moss covered rocks.
But there were no signs that otters enjoyed this moss. There was a wide area of trampled grass near by, probably done by deer.
I walked down to it, but saw no otter scats. I was, after all, rather far from the marshy area where I did find scats, quite in the background in the photo below.
I went up to the Lost Swamp Pond dam before going into that marsh, and there I saw several new otter scats,
Still black and smelly
There was even the head of a small bullhead, otter leftovers.
When I see black scats, relatively fresh like this, I automatically look out into the pond, and today I saw something dive in the water. I dove for cover, but it turned out to be a muskrat, who surfaced and placidly munched grasses along the opposite shore of the pond.
Last winter I noticed some old otter scats on a small beaver lodge along the small creek flowing down from the Lost Swamp Pond dam to the Upper Second Swamp Pond. I saw a huge ant mound on the way, and signs that deer had been in that part of the meadow, but no otter scats on the old lodge. Then I walked around to the area in the meadow below the dam where I saw scats two days ago, and there outside the little hole in the grass, were more scats
It’s hard to describe how much this excited me. Over my 15 years of tracking otters here, I have lost the trail when they entered a wet meadow thick with grass, but I have never found evidence of their making themselves so at home there. We are so prone to characterize and categorize animals that in our minds we preclude the possibility of their responding creatively to their environment. There is probably 75% less ponded water on this end of the island than there was 10 years ago. I’ve never seen scats in a meadow like this, though I have seen scats farther from water than these. So what is really unique is that scats are around the hole in the grass. But I can’t prove that otters denned in the hole. Indeed there was a rather taut little stick at the opening of the hole
And the hole looks rather small, and there were bits of scat in it, suggesting that otters dug it out perhaps looking for frogs or bugs. That said, the scats in the area looked to be laced with fish bones.
And why den here away from water where the fish are. The nearby creek is quite meager, but it’s not difficult to imagine otters scooting along it under the towering grasses. So I tramped down the meadow toward the pools of the Second Swamp Pond, trying to angle over to the water as soon as possible, which wasn’t easy until I found what I took to be a deer trail, but when I got to the mud flanking the water, I saw a flurry of tracks that could very well have been from otters.
The ground was too soggy to get right over a print. They seemed too vigorous for raccoons. The creek was a bit wider here, but not a good place to bite fish.
I continued down to the broader reaches of the shallow pond where I could get a good view of the shore -- no tall grasses here since it had been flooded earlier in the summer, and I didn’t see any otter scats or prints, got no sense that I was following otters, but I was, the latrine on the side of the bank lodge was smeared with new scats.
A close-up shows the stain on the rock below one of the new scats.
I could smell scat, but when I poked the new scats with a stick they were relatively hard. I sat up on the knoll for about 10 minutes, somewhat like old times, but no otters plunged out from the marsh and into the water. Of course it was not like the old times. Instead of three ponds below this one leading to South Bay, there were three large meadows. And if these otters had turned into meadow otters, meadow feeders, what chance had I to see them anyway? And the East Trail Pond was now just a pool of water. I headed that way and as I walked past the pool, all green with duckweed, I had to stop. I heard screeching from the rocks along the east shore. I sat and listened -- otters screech and they like denning in jumbles of granite boulders, but so do porcupines and these screeches began sounding more and more like a porcupine's. Even when nose to nose with a rival or mate, porcupine screeches don’t quite have the nasty tone of otters. So I continued on to Shangri-la Pond. A couple of pools in the creek coming down from the pond were quite muddy with nipped vegetation. Had a muskrat moved down there from the dry pond above? I didn’t investigate that today. I took a photo of the meadow behind the dam. So dry that the bur marigold never took root and bloomed.
Not that it’s ever bloomed here before when the pond was virtually dry. The pond the beavers moved to, Meander Pond, didn’t look much wetter.
It was easy to find a dry way around the pond. I didn’t see any new gnawing on the many trees the beavers cut down south of the pond. I went directly to the canal they have been using. The canal looked about the same, not especially muddy but the grass on the slope at the end of the canal looked more worked over and worn down
All the alders had been cut and the beavers tried to take down a small shag-bark hickory.
From that hickory I could get a view of the lodge, and there the water did look muddy and the lodge tended, though there wasn’t any cache of saplings around it.
I didn’t see any signs of beaver activity as I walked down to the dam. There is still a pool of water there.
One year that dried out, and the beavers living there still survived by dredging. Meanwhile, the small tree the beavers cut below the dam has hardly been touched. I could only see that one small branch had been cut off it.
Going around this pond, I was distracted by some milkweed pods coming apart with their characteristic beauty. Yes, colorful leaves are the stunning emblem of the seasons, but so is this
And this
I took a beeline to the Audubon Pond embankment where the humans had not made their next move -- the dirt was still piled up next to the embankment, but perhaps the beavers have. There looked to be some cut saplings out on the now clear drain, and near it.
Along the shore behind the embankment there were stripped sticks, not that many, and down below in front of the embankment the beavers had cut down a smaller tree, and were in the process of cutting others. The big ash they had cut seemed to be hanging up on other trees.
I didn’t walk around the drained pond. Down at the otter latrine over looking the entrance to South Bay there were no otter signs, and none anywhere else along the north shore of South Bay, which pleased me. I didn’t want the confusion of wondering if the otters in the Lost Swamp Pond and Second Swamp Pond were also foraging in South Bay. Otherwise, as I continue to test the new camera, I tried out the best way to photograph and fly on a leaf.
Now I have to identify it.
September 28 We finally got bit of rain, and more on the way. I checked our meager apple crop at our land. Our stalwart tree on the slope down to the Deep Pond seems to have been shaded out of a good crop, which I’ve noticed for weeks. I didn’t expect to see any apples and then to my surprise I found one large apple at eye level right next to the path, quite the biggest apple I’ve ever gotten off that tree, but only one. I ate it and must figure out how to save the tree. Meanwhile, a smaller tree out in the sun had more apples than ever. I had to cut away surrounding bushes last fall. I went down to the Deep Pond, always looking to see if a beaver moved back. I don’t think so. I walked along the high bank and took a photo of the small mound of logs I noticed.
If a beaver had arranged that, the vegetation in the water below it would have been eaten back more. That said a good bit of the vegetation in the water has been eaten back toward the shore, but I think muskrats are doing it. There were some nibbled stalks floating outside of a likely spot on bank for a burrow.
Of course, I also walked around the Last Pool and Boundary Pond. Once again I took a photo of the poplar trunk because it looked like there were new gnaws on it.
Shallow as the water is here, I know that beavers are swimming by the trunk, or at least one. I saw a hornbean in the woods up from the pond cut
As well as a birch and a small elm
Looking up into these woods from the back edge of the Last Pool, I can see that what once was a tangle of small trees, and prickly ash do tangle with you, is now rather clear
But then when I looked back at the Last Pool from the back edge of the clearing, I can see plenty of green, many more trees to cut.
The beavers I watch on the Island haven’t had the luxury of shopping for trees like this in many years. Yet I won’t say these Boundary Pond beavers have an easier life. They have to manage a shallow pond in an area that lacks mud to make good dams and that is easy to dredge. The island beavers had a second hay day in most of the ponds. After clearing out saplings and easy to transport trees, they then came back and cut big oaks and ash trees and cut and dragged their branches into deep ponds that for a few years seemed an inexhaustible mine of logs to strip. Something to be said for huge ponds over three feet deep, which will never be the case if these beavers continue to live up from the Boundary Pond dam. I walked down the west shore of Boundary Pond where I saw a small elm cut convenient to the channel up to the Last Pool. There were more large trees in the process of being cut, including an elm at one of the beavers’ favorite hang outs. Last week when there was a good deal more water in the pond they cut a huge birch close to the west shore. Then as the water receded with the late summer drought they dredged the channel, cut saplings, nibbled small logs in the channel and now they are cutting a large tree that had been there all the time.
A bit farther down they are finally addressing the smaller tree sharing a stump with a large red maple.
Red maples are suppose to survive the ravages of beavers, but lately I’ve seen beavers on the island no longer ignoring them. We have drawn too many conclusions about beavers from observing them when there were not that many beavers around relative to the variety of trees available. And speaking of theories, I have been suggesting that the adults in this family of beavers are forcing the three kits to stay close to the lodge because of the threat of falling trees. Now they are cutting an elm close to the lodge that is bent toward the lodge.
I likely won’t be around when this comes down, and, of course, cutting a tree near the lodge doesn’t negate my theory. All the beavers will be able to observe the course of the cutting and seek shelter when the tree reaches the trembling point.
September 29 boy, did it rain. We had rain all morning then it cleared and as I planned my hike, I looked up and saw another downpour. I assumed it was a squall, and it poured for another two hours. The beavers should be happy, but I decided not to try to measure their bounty. The river was too alluring. Everything else drips after a rain, but not the river, it beckons. The waves are gone, the air clear, in a funny way the river seems dry after a rain. At least it is not wringing wet like the woods and meadows. Paddling around the headland, I enjoyed the pleasant surprise of cormorants popping up after their long dives. Some looked smaller than usual, this year's chicks tanking up for the flight south. No ospreys about. I heard an owl hooting from the woods. My guess is that owls could do without ospreys -- don’t compete, but they are the same size and make different noises. I paddled down to the lodge under the last willow on the north shore of the south cove. The water is so low I couldn’t paddle much farther down the cove. All the lily blooms are gone and I expected to see nothing but dying pads but I saw beaver gnawing on the willow again. One big branch had been cut.
Then I heard a flock of birds back in the marsh and up in the trees making a high pitched sound that reminded me more of redpoles then wax wings, but this is rather early for the former to be around here. I couldn’t see them but got a photo of the beaver lodge, which I don’t think the beaver uses, at least there are no signs of that like stripped sticks around or new logs on top of the lodge.
Paddling back up the shore, I saw a heron that simply wouldn’t fly away as I got closer. I couldn’t decide if it was just trying to dry out after all the rain, or if it had something stuck in its gullet. It often had beak open and tongue raised awkwardly
Probably just drying out. It didn’t fly off until a flock of mallards nearby panicked at my approach. The heron didn’t fly far. Got closer to the sun, up in the branches of a dead tree.
Going around the point I was startled to see that a beaver finally did some serious gnawing on the willow there
One trunk going back low over the rocks had been cut, and the base of the tree, from which all the trunks grow, had been half girdled. The color of the inner bark was striking. Usually the beavers eat that most of all. It is as if they wanted the bark proper, not the inner bark which is what they are supposed to relish. I couldn’t paddle very far down the north cove. I hit mud after the flat rock where otters often scat, but not recently. I looked for bryozoa but saw none and I looked for beaver signs. There was much river grass pulled up, indeed much of the bottom of the cove was clear, but I think the ducks and geese are doing that. The lower water level is good for them. I paddled along the north shore, enjoying the chattering of a kingfisher -- they seem to be enjoying the lower water too. One had a shiner in its beak. I looked for beaver cut alders and found work on another willow instead, on one of the huge trunks that hang out over the water.
And one of the big branches sticking up was about to be cut. Here again much of the red inner bark was ungnawed -- or is this redness more from the rain? I checked other willows up to the docking rock but saw no more beaver gnawing. I’ve never seen a beaver gnawing a willow. I headed home, though the sky showed a promise for a brilliant sunset
As I got near the exposed rocks on the shore of the south entrance to the bay, I saw something jump off a rock and then back up on it. As I paddled closer the mink was not disposed to flee
Then it dove into the water
and by the bubbles I could see it was swimming toward me, then it turned back and slipped back up on the rock with a crayfish in its mouth
It huffed a bit, I suppose more at me than the poor crayfish. Its jaws clamped down and broke the shell.
That taken care of, it jumped into the water and swam to the shore to enjoy its meal away from me.
September 30 no rain most of the day, until I headed off in the boat. I braved a few squalls, amazing how the wind speed doubles in a squall. When I got to my destination, no rain and the wind seemed to be calming down. I investigated a rocky shore and found what I was looking for, otter scats. Understandably otter like soft toilet, so in general, I found more scat on the grass and moss above the granite boulders along the shore.
Most of the scats I saw were old, left during the summer.
In many places the earth coats the rocks, and I found holes through the dirt leading to cavernous rocks below (on a small scale of course.) However, I didn’t see any scats outside of those holes. I don’t think this is a shore where otters have to strain to find a hiding place since there are so many crannies in the rocks in front of the strip of moss and grass, and then thick bushes heading up the ridge, and more rock crannies. I don’t think otters come here only to hide. I saw two interior lakes, so to speak, formed by depressions within the rocky area. Hard to describe but easy to see in a photo.
During the summer when the water in the river was higher, there would have been more water in that little lake since water could easily course through the rocks along the river shore. There were otter scats all along the rocks beside the “lake.”
And since the river’s water level started dropping in late August, most of the scats low along the rocks are from September. I know pups are being raised here, and certainly this protected area is ideal for pups. I bet the mother left them here, went out fishing in the river, caught a fish, crippled it by biting off a bit of the tail, and then left it in the “lake” so the pups could learn a bit about fish. Another hundred yards along the shore there was an even better set up, a little lake behind the rocks and higher, and save in very high water, not connected to the river.
So pups here could learn to swim with little risk that they might find there way to the river, which is rather deep just off the rocks, 6 to 10 feet easy. I found scat on the rocks here too. And toward the river shore, black scats. Otter are still around and there were rather fresh fish parts. Would love to see the otters making themselves at home in these rocks and lakes and soft green spots.
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