Sunday, January 16, 2011

More from the Beaver Pond of the Vermilon River. A Post to Scenic Sunday.

Showing the Extent of the Pond.

Dam Channel


Close up of the Lodge


Not Quite finished


Another tree finished
This is Part 2 of the beaver pond tour. The first was posted on Wednesday and contains a lot of information on beaver. I'm not going to go through it again. If you want to re-read it, its just two posts back. But I'll tell you more about the pond and answer some of your questions. The first photo shows the magnitude of the pond and the stand of birch on the opposite side. I think I'm on the wrong shore. I'm on the abandoned RR right of way. You can see the gravel of the road bed in the top photo showing you the dam channel. Remember they dam the narrowest area. So the pond is sealed at my end. But the real stand of working material is on the other side. And its just what they like birch. As well, my side leaves them open to predators because they're away from the water.And predators are here. There are wolf and coyote tracks in the soft earth. They're probably looking for mice, voles and rabbits along the bank of the right of way, but a beaver would be nice. The two trees, both aspen, that the beaver have been at are on my side and show current pond activity. But something disturbed the beaver at work because the first tree is not finished. The second has all the branches sheared off for food and work material.

The close up of the lodge shows the use of mud and branches in the construction. You could walk on the lodge and on the beaver dam without any threat of going through.They build for permanence and I think they occupy a lodge for 10-12 years.

In answer to the frequent question did I see any beaver? No. The reason being I think I'm on the wrong side of the pond.

I could cross over the dam and come around towards the lodges that way, but the right of way is 9-10 feet high and the area beyond the dam is likely bog. See the tower at the back of the pond. These is an electrical  right of way there, and I could use it to gain access to the back of the lake. But you have to be careful there also, as the cleared land is filled with blueberry bushes that attract black bears, and the bears use it as a highway to raid the garbage of the campsites that are on the occupied lake much further over.But, I'm going to do that come summer because the ducks also stay on the other side of the pond, and I need some photos of them.

Now I've probably bored you all to to tears.

A Post to Scenic Sunday For more scenes click here:


20 comments:

  1. Enjoying your beaver pics and info, Gary, I hadn't been able to catch more than a glimpse of a beaver, here and there either until this fall, we were out at Kettle Lakes and I did get a few pics of one at the end of my zoom. Check them out when you have time. Would love to see one 'at work' !!

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  2. Good Beavers photos. I'd love to see them.

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  3. Interesting information about your beaver pond. I agree with "bonifer"...I would love to see the beavers working.

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  4. Very nice post. It's great to get to have a feeling for some of the details of beaver construction. As we have no local beavers here in the Dallas area I am interested in getting to experience them through your descriptions & photos!

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  5. Great post Gary! Thanks for sharing.

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  6. I find your post very educational. Sadly the County workers here destroy the beaver dams. Not sure why...:(

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  7. Wow that beaver lodge is super impressive!

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  8. Neat post, Gary.

    I finally discovered why I have seen dams but no beavers. Apparently beavers are mostly nocturnal! I never knew that before!

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  9. Great pics Gary. I love beavers. Up at the lake last year, we were fishing in a small river, when a beaver swam about 2 feet from me, climbed up on the bank, and waddled very quickly over the small man made damn and back into the river on the other side! I have never seen anything like that before, and of course, I didn't have my camera!

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  10. To Bonifer: I checked out your pics and you were lucky to get them.

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  11. Again Randi so would I. That's why I'm going to take that long treck.

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  12. To John S. Mead. I'll be posting about my treck to the other side of the pond as soon as winter leaves.

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  13. To Jean. Thanks for the visit and kind words.

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  14. Hi Jen. Now if it works out that I can find the beaver.

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  15. To EGW: That they are, and it makes them hard to see also.

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  16. Wow Karen you missed a major photo op. Isn't that just the way.

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