Saturday, November 14, 2015

The Beaver Pond

You may remember I wrote before about a beaver pond being drained back in June.  We had watched the water level rise over a few trips past until it was quite high.  The beaver had dammed up a culvert.  But the water level was threatening the road, and the township works crew moved in and removed the beavers' hard work, draining the pond.  You can find that story here.

Last week it looked as if the water level had risen again, so we stopped for a quick look.  My eagle-eyed navigator spotted movement on the far side of the pond, so we drove around and this is what we saw.  That ripple at the bottom of the screen is a beaver working again at damming the culvert.

It was dusk and getting dark rapidly, so the lighting was terrible, and these pictures came out very dark.  I had to edit them to make them lighter to see anything.  But you can actually see the beaver's tail, so it's not a muskrat!

They swam quite close, and seemed unafraid, though leery about actually coming back to work on damming the culvert where we were parked.  And yes, we did see two of them, though only one at a time.

We've only seen beaver twice before in our lives, so even though the pictures aren't great, we really enjoyed getting a close look at these busy active critters.

One of them kept swimming in a circle out in the pond and then back closer to us.  They never stopped moving in the time we were there.

We had almost turned to go as it was getting seriously dark, when one climbed out on the shore a short distance away.  Though I had to lighten the picture considerably, you can clearly see the animal here with its broad flat tail.

We both hope the beavers survive and don't get trapped out.  It's fascinating to be able to watch them so closely.  I thought of going back early some morning, or earlier in the evening, to get some better pictures.  We shall see how soon the winter weather arrives.

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14 comments:

  1. I hope these beavers are left where they seem happy. The family that keeps affecting the watershed flow at our arboretum have had threats from the town to trap them out. We've been lobbying to have them left alone and so far they have been. It's a shame when wildlife is moved from desirable habitat because we don't want them there.

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  2. We can only hope the township leaves those beavers alone. Unfortunately if the road floods we know what will happen.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  3. I've never seen one in the wild so this is wonderful to see!

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  4. Let them live their peaceful lives right there, stunning photo of the ripples,

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  5. How cool to see those beavers! Too bad they are plugging up a culvert. There must be someplace to relocate these guys where they can build a dam that doesn't bother anyone.

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  6. amazing photos. We have a beaver dam in a nearby lake - but it is too far to get good photos - though one time I got a great photo of a heron on top of the beaver dam.

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  7. Cool shots of the beavers. It does seem a shame to interfere with their hard word and habitat. Hopefully the road will not flood. Thank you so much for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Sunday, enjoy your new week ahead!

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  8. Hello!:) Oh, super shots of the beavers! What a treat to see beavers in their natural habitat. I do hope they will be safe in the home they have created.

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  9. These are great shots! I haven't ever been that close to a beaver, although we sure see what they do to trees and lakes around here. So I'm happy to see your pictures. :-)

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  10. Cool to see the pictures of the beavers. You captured some great shots. Used to see beavers around the lake where I used to live.

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  11. They're quite formidable animals. There are ways to work with them instead of against them... hopefully the locals are constructive in their solutions.

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  12. That is exciting to see the beavers at work at dusk. I've never seen one in the wild.

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  13. Good for the beavers! Rebuilding! I love it! Great photos of them and the pond!

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