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D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

Half A Bucket
Sun Jan 22 2012

So, okay, it did rain. Occasionally a downpour for a few minutes, but nothing that impressive. But as I found out rain is rain and it piled up. And has caused Mr. Beaver some problems. I took this picture to give you a better idea of how close his home is to the edge of the subdivision. We live several blocks away from these houses. Here's a close up of his house right now... I don't know what you might call this kind of construction style. Loosely controlled chaos? But it seems to work for him. The lower dam is going to need repairs...   Notice the new stream going around the side. That's how his dams end up so wide.If he decides to build in this area, it will widen the pond by quite a bit. Here's the real problem... That's gotta hurt. One of these nights when it warms up a bit, I am going to go down there and set up camp to see if I can catch him at work. To tell you the truth though, this set up is a lot more up close and personal than his old lodge, and I'm kinda scared of him… a little bit. I hear from the man who has seen him that he is pretty impressively large. I mean, if he can chew down a tree, what might he do to me? I may have to do a little research on the aggression levels of wild beavers. You know, one of the questions the man who was dismantling his dam all the time asked me was, what good do beavers do? And my answer was that he creates habitat for other animals. And I have proof. As I was walking up to the pond this time, who should I spot but a large white Heron hunting at the pond. I rest my case.
6 Comments
  • From:
    404error (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Jan 22 2012
    In my experience with beavers, they aren't aggressive toward people at all. When they see or hear you they slap their tails, dive deep and swim into their houses. You rarely get a second sighting on the same day. Now, my experience is limited to a beaver family that lived on the Feather River where I used to go tubing. But we used to hop out of the river just a little ways down from the beaver lodge and on the opposite side of the river to rest before completing the trip. Sometimes, if we were very quiet, they would come back out and swim around. They were smart enough to know that they couldn't dam up the Feather River, so they applied all their innate building skill toward making a nicer, safer home.
  • From:
    Parett (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Jan 22 2012
    I will be waiting with baited breath for your observations. : )
  • From:
    Parett (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Jan 22 2012
    That was NOT sarcasm! : )
  • From:
    Mamallama (Legacy)
    On:
    Sun Jan 22 2012
    We've had buckets and buckets and buckets of rain and a teeny tiny bit of snow. Yay for Mr. Beaver!!
  • From:
    Ksmiley (Legacy)
    On:
    Mon Jan 23 2012
    I have seen many beaver dams after they build or during the process of building because have had a cottage near a lake that a beaver would be seen building or swimming in the lake often during the summer months we visited the family cottage. I have seen the chaotic look of a beaver dam after the fact of a rainstorm of all kinds and they look so complex from the beginning but a beaver dam is what it is because it is built by that particular animal. It is amazing what animals are born to do along with the instincts God has given them all these years the earth has been here.
  • From:
    Camomille (Legacy)
    On:
    Mon Jan 23 2012
    Yep, I've never heard of a beaver doing humans harm but then I don't know for sure. Would be interesting to watch him at work.