Silver Wolf Colony (A sad ending to a now empty beaver pond)

 What once was a large and successful colony of beavers, now sits drained. Only a little water left past where the dam used to hold it all in. This little puddle of water seems to be home to a family of wood ducks and occasional mallards, black ducks and Canada geese as they pass through. 

A photo doesn't do this dam justice, but it was without a doubt the largest and longest dam out of all the other ponds in the area. Stretched across I would guess around 75 yards, not quite the length of a football field. Impressive was an understatement to describe this structure. 

A year or two ago, this long structure broke open during a lengthy storm. This caused quite a monsoon to go down the stream, even taking out a bridge on a poor fellows driveway. Thus leaving this successful colony to become defunct as the beavers left to find somewhere else to call home. Now it sits, overgrown, a shadow of what it once was. 

I think what fascinates me about beavers is the fact that they build these structures, no two are alike. When they are done with them, they sit abandoned, much like an old building or factory, once bustling with life, now empty. As with manmade and animal made structures, they don't remain lifeless for long. Plants begin to grow over and in them. Smaller animals use them for shelter. Herons sit a top old lodges eating a fresh caught frog or fish. Life goes on in these places, but it goes on without the presence of the beavers. 

Velvet Buck

 A quick photo before he turned and ran. This beautiful animal was among a small group of does. They have been frequenting this spot , a corn field that went unplanted this season. 

A young buck in velvet, I stopped to admire

among a dry weedy field

two does near red like a fire

as the sun shone down on their coats

verdant green vegetation

mixed in with drab crushed down corn

a lovely happenstance situation

observing velvet antlers partially formed

A Quiet Brown Thrasher

 As I left for work this morning, this Brown Thrasher caught my eye. 

This bird moved around a few times landing back on the wire each time. Eventually it flew off, followed almost immediately by a second thrasher (that I did not catch on camera). Neither thrasher vocalized at all in the few minutes I watched them, which is a bit unusual, they typically have a lot to say. 

Maples Gulch Colony (A lone adult beaver appears)

 

A lone adult beaver that had just emerged from the lodge. It was the first of three, that appeared yesterday. 

The lone adult, made its way over to the far side of the pond and began feeding in the algae. I am unsure of what it was eating, maybe vegetation just under the surface or perhaps the algae itself. The other two adults that came out later were feeding in the same manner. 

Maples Gulch Colony (A tale of four lodges)

 A beaver pond with four lodges? I have driven past this pond many times, and until yesterday, I thought it only had one lodge (the overgrown one shown in the last photo). Yesterday as I set up shop to observe beavers, I realized there were four. The first photo shown, is where I saw the first adult beaver come from, leading me to believe this was perhaps the active lodge. A while later two more adults appeared to have come from the lodge in the third photo. I watched these adults as they appeared to be eating vegetation from under the algae or perhaps the algae itself? The answer is that I do not know for sure. 

The whole point of this blog is for me to have a place to keep track of photos and videos as I begin to observe different beaver ponds within a few miles from where I live. My goal is to observe the habits of the beavers and to try and establish the population at each pond. Overall, I'd like to learn as much as I can about these awesome animals. Of course as a birdwatcher, I'll be sharing photos of the birds I see along the way also.