A New Trail, Or More Exciting Adventures At The Vermilon River. .

 Up to the eyebrows with cabin fever, and tired of incessant rain, Boom and I decided to cross the ridge and take a chance on avoiding a storm. The rainy duration has been long, and substantial, even washing out highways to the west of us, and forcing evacuations of aboriginal reserves in the Wawa area.The idea was to pick up a trail we had never used before and enter the east track beaver pond from the reverse side.

 Once under way the sky lightened a little, but that as it turned out, was a tease.

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A post to:I'd Rather Be Bird'n, Our World Tuesday, and Wild Bird Wednesday.

Beaver Dam

After a long hike we picked up the trail to the beaver pond, but were soon thwarted by nature and the beavers.

The beaver pond empties by a circuitous route into further wetlands, and the River,but the beaver had damed the tributary. With the recent rains, the whole trail was flooded. By moving off trail we got a little way, but the remaining ten feet were impossible, because of depth. The dam is new. I thought you might like to see how clever they are. The dam is constructed of mud and branches, and buttressed on both sides. The dam is constructed to release water under flood conditions.

 Construction material and food is right at hand.

A neat job.

Neat as a pin.

The engineer

Beaver

Beaver.

Evening Grosbeaks.

Blue Jay.

Canada Geese.

Chickadee.

Female Evening Grosbeak

Hidden Blue Jay.

Pine Sisken

Rose-breasted Nuthatch.

Ruffled Grouse.

Pine Sisken

Chickadee.

Same.

Same.

Rose-breasted Nuthatch.

Red Squirrel.

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Canada Geese.

Red Squirrel

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Rose-breasted Nuthatch.

Same.

Evening Grosbeaks.

White-breasted Nuthatch.

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Male Grosbeak

Chickadee.

Geese in flight.

Pine Siskens.

Two Male Grosbeaks.

Several people asked me how Boomer is in the forest. Malamutes,Boomer in particular are silent dogs. He's feral himself, and after going alert, only grunts to let me know something is there. Canines including wild ones have three senses. Smell is the most active, some 10,000 times more active than mine, followed by hearing, again more acute than mine. Eyesight is the least effective, but is more sensitive to movement than mine. We see instead planes and angles and depth. To see the way canines see, try using your peripheral vision and you'll notice movement. CBC ran a series of programs on new research just recently completed on dogs.
He also obeys commands like stay, but the most effective is steady. That means stay, and watch me. As well the haltie leash acts like a rein to silently signal direction. So all in all, he'a no slouch in the woods.

Red Squirrel.