May 22 I took a more leisurely kayak tour of South Bay and before I entered the bay I paused to watch ten geese share an uncut lawn with seven goslings. I saw no signs of beaver activity at the end of the south cove. Last year I saw a beaver at the end of the cove a few times. The painted turtles were up on the willow branches that dip into the water. Two vultures were hanging around, and, I am pretty sure, there were three different herons. Bullheads raised mud as I paddled on, and it finally struck me why otters don't exhaust themselves trying to catch bullheads. The fish can too easily bury themselves in the mud, which, I know by personal experience is between two and three feet deep here. A couple of carp seemed be thrashing about but might have been bass after bugs. There is a new hoard of insects, rather pale, almost yellow, flying harum scarum just above the water. As I paddled into the light wind, a sudden gust prompted a school of small fish to ripple the surface and some to jump out, and that in turn prompted some thrashing from a large fish. I saw two dead sunnies floating on the surface. As I paddled up to the willow latrine, I saw a porcupine in the crook of the ash tree, just where I've seen an adult porcupine twice before. I assume it's the mother keeping an eye on the baby on the ground slowly developing its climbing skills. I expect them
to move out to the willow tree soon, as the mother did last year. Leaves are almost out. As I nosed into the willow latrine something large nosed under water -- much like a muskrat retreat. So I backed off and waited -- what few bubbles I saw as I waited didn't make any sense so I inspected the latrine again and saw nothing much new except a smooth rim of mud, so something might be climbing out here. I checked the ash tree crown at the end of the short canal, didn't seem to be any new work there. As I paddled around to the north cove I saw a muskrat swimming from the middle of the cove over to the north shore. I tried to get a bead on where its burrow might be but lost it in some rocks. Then I saw another muskrat in the middle of the cove, placidly eating grasses as it floated on the water, doing bit of balancing with its tail. I checked the otter latrines as best I could from the
water, and saw nothing new, but did smell scat, just like last year. There is a huge old willow behind the flat rock on the shore. Otter mothers are famous for raising pup in tree trunks. I wouldn't want to pry, but some day I might sit and listen for an hour or so. There were less fish in this cove, and, of course, the herons I saw here might have flown over after I disturbed the south cove. When I turned the kayak along the line of the marsh, I saw a muskrat swimming right toward me, and it got within ten feet before it dived. I didn't see it surface so paddled on along the marsh and almost down to the inlet creek. I was entertained by the scratchings of painted turtles on the dead cattail stalks. Several times I thought it must be a raccoon, or even a deer, then kerplunk, and silence. As I turned to head back up the bay, I saw a muskrat swimming over to the old dock. Then as that muskrat nosed about there, another muskrat swam over to the marsh. The muskrat swam under the dock. An hour well spent, and I paddled home to dinner.
May 23 A hot summer-like day and I headed off at 2 pm, into the thick of the heat, to check on Thicket Pond, to settle my ideas about the Second Swamp Pond beavers, and, if this heat keeps up, to spend my last afternoon watching muskrats. As I went along the South Bay trail, I stayed on plan and didn't veer out to check on the baby porcupine. With mother parked in an ash tree, I'm sure it's there. I didn't even check the old dock latrine -- with muskrats living there why would an otter be around? I slowed enough under the tall trees of the East Trail
Pond for a scarlet tanager to reveal itself, but none did. Since the wind was out of the west, I approached Thicket Pond from the southeast and the first thing I noticed was that the water was not muddy, and there were precious few leaves coming out in the thicket of buttonwoods.
Then the freshly cut maple that I had even sat behind waiting for beavers to come to trim it, and none did, seemed ungnawed. Perhaps some leaves taken but no branches.
I saw some nips on other branches, and it looked like the red oak trunk had been stripped a bit more closer to the stump,
but.... Could the beavers have left? Even with so many meals just begun? I looked down at Meander Pond, where they had wintered last year, but saw no signs of beaver down there. Then as I walked around the northeast canal, I saw a
fresh, almost wet trail,
leading to the shady pool to the east,
toward what I call Shangri-la Pond which beavers left several years ago. I followed the East Trail up the beautiful high granite ridge that overlooks the pond. The upper end of the pond had water and there was a trail through the duckweed.
However, there were no signs of beavers using the old beaver lodges. Then as I looked toward the east, I saw a small pile of stripped sticks on a bit of mud in the pond
Then I saw a large area of muddy water behind the dam, and a freshly cut maple on the far shore
After beavers built a dam flooding a portion of the East Trail, the park put a pipe through the dam. But several winters seemed to have pushed the pipe higher. Plus these beavers are masters at dredging and have water enough as it is. I could see the fresh mud on the dam and a little pile of stripped sticks
under the pipe.
I'll have to come out and see how many beavers are down here, or if they commute from the Thicket Pond. I couldn't see any sign of their using an old lodge or making a new one. I even asked a garter snake who had a good view of it all,
but couldn't translate its licking tongue.
Perhaps the dredging they did this winter around the buttonbushes, getting mud to build their magnificent new lodge there, killed off the bushes. If those leaves don't don't come, I think the pond will dry out rather quickly under
the hot summer sun. Well, we'll see. Of course, I wish beavers would recolonize the East Trail Pond. While up on the ridge I looked down at the meadow where, when it was a full pond, baby otters used to learn the ropes
I crossed the swamp on the old boardwalk, which afforded a melancholy look at the lodge.
The color of the muddy water is indescribable, though a leopard frog made a good crack at it.
I didn't see any new beaver work below the Second Swamp Pond dam, and there was no mud pushed up on the lodge, probably no new sticks either.
Coming up to the dam, I saw a muskrat swim from the lodge into the grasses behind the dam, so I waited for it to return with a bouquet, but it didn't. By the way, this pond didn't look muddy either and as I looked down at the otter
latrine further along the knoll, I thought to myself that this pond is being ignored
Then I saw a small scat on the rock right below me and several scats on the lower part of the latrine, just off from the now grey scat of a week or so ago.
All the new scats were black, and two were moist.
So despite my theories about crayfish and bullheads, the otters won't leave this pond alone. As I approached the Upper Second Swamp Pond dam, I saw the geese and goslings -- four of the original eight goslings remain. The mother goose led them up pond and she seemed as wary as any goose I've ever seen. She stretched her neck low along the water looking rather fearsome. The gander brought up the rear as usual. The beaver lodge looked the same
but there was much busy mud work along the dam. Some blobs looked calculated with perhaps a future snack pushed up into position too.
Other blobs were just oozing mud.
There seemed to be a blob about every four feet, and then in some sections solid work. The water is rising too, almost to the brim. Yet since the silt had widened the dam so much, I could comfortably walk on top of it.
When I came up to the Lost Swamp Pond dam, I saw a muskrat swimming to it, diving and, though I sat and waited a few minutes, I didn't see it again. Sometimes muskrats have holes through dams, but not this one. The beavers are tending it too closely. Indeed they pushed a long pole over the dam. Two years ago they pushed a good size log up into a hole on top of the lodge near the dam, otter-proofing the lodge with a flagpole, or so I thought, now they manipulated this even longer log up and over the dam.
At the edge of the dam, I saw one smear of a otter scat on a stick. So since the wind was from the north, I hurried over to my perch on the rocks above the south shore to wait for muskrats and maybe even otters -- much too early for beavers. Of course, I checked the mossy cove latrine on the way, and I saw some definite new scraping and scats deposited on the clods scraped up.
As usual the scats here were not as generous as the scats at the Second Swamp Pond latrine. Then I sat on my perch and waited. I quickly formed the theory that muskrat territories are now well understood and that muskrats were safe
to sit on logs, in their own territory, and enjoy the bounty of spring. My evidence for this were two muskrats, one in the middle territory and one in the western territory, hunched on logs enjoying the bounty of spring.
But I waited too long. Theories can't stand time, sometimes even a few minutes. I saw a muskrat coming from the lodge by the dam and swimming up to the northeast corner of the pond. They may have been the muskrat I first saw. Then the
middle muskrat swam off to the point and there it nosed into another muskrat. That muskrat, I think, swam off to the burrows in the nearby corner of the pond, then swam back and met yet another muskrat grazing in the grasses around the point. I say
another because a muskrat was out in the water off the point tail up out of the water and munching. There was no contention, no courting, that I could see. Evidently three is not a crowd for muskrats. Then a muskrat materialized from the far north shore of the point and swam slowly over to the north shore of the pond.
Was that the first muskrat I saw? Then I saw such a fast wake coming down from the northeast corner of the pond, that I thought it must be an otter, but it too was a muskrat, swimming twice as fast as usual and it swam to the dam and the best I could see went directly over it. Then a muskrat swam back to the lodge in the middle of the pond from the point. At the same time the western muskrat stopped grazing and started swimming east, but I lost it behind some trees, and was distracted by the two muskrats grazing in the grass around the point. When I turned back to lodge, I saw a muskrat swimming away from it to the east, and it swam straight as, but not as fast as, the muskrat that swam down from there and went over the dam. So was this the grazing western muskrat or that eastern speeding muskrat that might have come
back over the dam? I was not the only thing concerned about these developments. Suddenly a muskrat came out from the burrows at end of the point and swam quickly and into the lodge. Its wake crossed the wake of the muskrat heading east. A few moments it came back out and swam back to the burrow at the point.
Time to go home. As I did I kept looking in the western end of the pond to see if that grazing muskrat was back up on a log. No. I am no expert at muskrat body language, but I think the fast swimming muskrat from the point was checking to make sure the sanctity of the lodge had not been violated. I saw the same type of purposeful swimming when a muskrat went around to check burrows just after a mink visited the burrows of the First Pond at our land. As for the speeding muskrat coming down from the east, I think that was a muskrat crossing territory.
I've seen otters and beavers that I thought might be interlopers showing the same demeanor, as if showing by its speed and direct route that it couldn't care in the least about the territory it was passing through. To avoid seeing any more muskrats, I hurried along the Big Pond dam, didn't even check the otter latrine I saw here last time.
May 24 we spent the night at our land. I haven't updated the comings and goings there. We saw rose breasted grosbeaks mating behind our house. And a scarlet tanager hopped around the oak tree beside our house. Leslie saw two
cuckoos along the cliff on the other side of the road. The next day the raven up at the Teepee pond imitated cuckoos, not well, and then flew over me laughing. The today I heard a genuine cuckoo calling a little beyond the Deep Pond. A red eyed verio has been singing around the house. We hope they join the phoebes and robins in making a nest. Wood thrushes and veerys have been singing, one thrush quite melodious in tree along the road last night. I heard rails last night off the Teepee Pond and Third Pond. Of course, we stayed up to listen to the frogs. The grey's
tree frogs are the dominant singer but there were some solitary peepers. The best chorus was at the Third Pond where joining the tree frogs, were about five peepers, two leopard frogs, a green frog, and some crickets. I heard bullfrogs at the Teepee Pond and Deep Pond, though I must say we remained puzzled about frogs in the Deep Pond. We see them during the day, mostly leopard frogs, but last night there was only an intermittent greys tree frog song. I'll have to go down there late at night. It is an open pond with little cover along the shore and it is the last place to get dark. The frog chorus might start after midnight. A whip-poor-will called for several sessions more or less along the line of our road. I stood under a tree that it sang from, close enough to hear the knock with every "will" and at the end heard what sounded like two growls, like the bird was discharging after all that electric energy. Of course, my main mission was to check on mammals. Two mornings ago I saw the muskrat behind the dam of the Deep Pond. There hasn't been any fresh beaver work on the dam, which still holds back water but has a bit of a leak. I didn't see any beaver or muskrat in the pond last night or this morning. But as I sat this morning up at the Teepee Pond a muskrat swam by before I could get video or a photo. I waited for it to return but it didn't. Working on the theory that it lives in the valley pool fifteen yards from the end of the Teepee Pond, I walked down that way, didn't see the muskrat. Did see muddy water at the end of the Teepee Pond but the water in the valley pool was quite clear. We go away for another short trip. When we get back I hope to discreetly find out where birds are nesting.
May 29 bright sunny day making it easy to see all that I have missed in the last four days -- all the leaves seem full out and the grasses are high, making it easy to lose my way on the Antler Trail. Walking around South Bay, I heard more carp thrashing, had blossoms bobbing in front of me. The first to
appreciate were the mayapples. I saw both blossoms
and apples
Then chokecherry blossoms dangled at me
and a dragonfly pose along the trail
Not as many as usual, yet. This is proving to be a good year for goslings. I disturbed three groups forcing them and their parents off the shore and into the bay. The first group was rather orderly, moving off in formation
and forming a line between their parents.
The second group started in orderly fashion
and then they all, mother too, broke up and began ducking into the water and getting things to eat. I usually see such disorder when they are eating grass on land, but not when they are in the water. I scared the third group of goslings off the rock next to the otter latrine over on the grassy part of the ridge overlooking the entrance to South Bay. The goslings dropped smartly into the water, one after one and then formed up
between their parents. I nosed over all the otter latrines. At the old dock I saw a trail up to where they last scatted there -- several weeks ago, and saw grass tufted up, but no scat. I saw much grass scraped up at the latrine
overlooking South Bay but no scats there either -- perhaps the geese messed over the grass. Even at the docking rock latrine I saw some scraping, but no scat. There was another mud mark on the rock
made by a beaver, I suppose. I wonder if this rock divides the bay between the beavers that live in the coves and the beavers that live over off Murray Island just west of the Narrows. I headed up to Audubon Pond, and found the park crew
there, at last, clearing the drain of the beavers' mud. The water had dropped only a few inches so far. I ignored them and checked the large ash tree the beavers have been working on. They continue to cut it and it should topple over soon. The smaller
ash tree behind has been cut down.
I always enjoy taking a close look at the gnawing on this large trunk. There always seems to be some gnawing not to the purpose of bringing down the tree, just the pure pleasure of cutting into wood.
The ash tree that is down has not been stripped at all, yet.
As I walked around the western end of the pond -- where there were no otter signs nor evidence that the beavers are using the bank lodge there, I did see a muskrat out in the pond. Along the north shore of the pond, I saw that the beavers had improved a canal up to the foot of another large ash tree and they had stripped a good deal of the bank, girdling the tree, and had begun to cut it down.
The loss of water in the pond might make their freshly dredged canal inconvenient. I sat at the bench and couldn't help but notice the men working on the drain. To prevent the beaver from mudding it up again, they put a fake owl on top of a pole coming out of the drain. We'll see how that works. A muskrat popped out in the water in the eastern end of the pond. Judging from the muddy bottom along the shore they still use the burrows behind the bench, and, as usual, there are trails up into the grass.
As I sat there a rolling chorus of bullfrogs began and then that was joined by humming in the nearby beaver lodge in the pond. I fancied that beavers and bullfrogs had noticed the water going down and couldn't stop complaining, but
they finally did calm down. Continuing around the pond, I saw that the beavers cut down the ash tree they had been working on in the northeast corner of the pond. It is hanging up on other trees.
Not all beaver colonies have such a taste for ash. I walked up to Meander Pond dam just to make sure that none of the restless beavers in the Thicket Pond came down there. The pond is full, the dam doesn't leak, but no sign that beavers have been in it. The water is quite clear. The only exception is the back dam of the pond, in the southeast corner just down from the Thicket Pond. The mud work there looks relatively fresh, like a beaver repacked it with mud since the snow melted. As I approached Thicket Pond, I saw two things swim deeper into the pond. Both were dark, and probably small beavers. Though the first could have been a duck and the second a muskrat. The buttonbushes are getting their leaves,
so their bare condition probably didn't prompt any beavers to leave. I looked at the work I am familiar with and I couldn't see any evidence of new gnawing on the large red oak they cut down nor the smaller maples. However, the end of the northeast canal was muddy, as was the trail to Shangri-la Pond,
especially over a log in the middle of their trail.
I took the East Trail up the cliff on the south side of Shangri-la Pond and when I came off the trail to look down at the pond, I saw something dive roughly between the old bank beaver lodges. So I sat down to wait for it to surface. I admired what looked like muskrat trails through the grass.
For ten minutes nothing stirred, in the water at least. The green banjo frogs kept up the chorus here, and four male orioles had a brief fight right below me -- gone by the time I got the camcorder out. Then just about when I was going to move on, a large muskrat swam below me heading up pond. I didn't see any beaver work until I got to the pile of sticks about at the end of the cliff. Seemed to be a few more sticks. Thanks to the muddy water in the pond, it was easy to see that the beavers were foraging up the creek that comes in from the north. I could see
that they had cut a maple up there. First I admired their work on the dam.
Beavers seem to make a thin mud wall to start with, using just a few logs backing it up, counting on silt accumulating behind the dam to widen it.
The dams I've seen made recently don't have many logs pushed over the dam. The dams I saw built several years ago were a riot pick-up-sticks. Perhaps this reflects a smaller supply of trees and branches. I walked up the little creek to
their fresh work around a pool formed by the creek. There was a medium sized maple down as well as two or three saplings.
I think this pool was created by the last beavers that lived here five or six years ago. Hard to believe all five beavers from Thicket Pond are here. In the woods here and on the way to the East Trail Pond, I fond two types of small
white flowers. The first was the familiar and gentle strawberry
The other flower, star flower, had an edge to it
There was no fresh beaver work around Second Swamp Pond, which is what I expected. And there was nothing new at the otter latrine, except I smelled fresh scat. So I worked my way around the honeysuckle along the bank,
and still didn't see otter scat. I did see a fresh mink scat
and a pile of old mink scat -- but all that was too small to pack such a smell. I suppose in the humid air and old scats keep up their stink. While poking around next to the pond another dragonfly posed for me.
When I came up to the Upper Second Swamp Pond dam I saw the goslings up pond and I think there were still at least four, but their mother took them into the meadowsweet before I could count.
The water behind the north end of the pond was muddy but no freshly nibbled beaver sticks, nor was there a wide trail off into the bush
But the dam is still well tended with mud, especially where the leaks through the dam had been.
Time to check Paradise Pond again. Up beside the Lost Swamp Pond dam I found smears of scat new to me, but they certainly weren't fresh, and really didn't look like otter scats.
So I get the impression that the otters are not using these ponds, now. More interesting than the old poop were a rain of yellow flowers in the bush by the dam, next to a honeysuckle bush with pink flowers.
This was a long hike and I was relieved that no muskrats were about, nothing new at the mossy cove latrine either. I admired the shy mayapple flowers in the shade by my perch on the rocks
Nothing new at the Big Pond either, though I didn't sit around and wait, which, of course, is what you have to do in the middle of the day. There was a lot of muddy water behind the south end of the dam. Wonder why this area is so
tasty?
On my way to Antler Trail I saw a white flower I don't recollect seeing before, flowering spurge?
And along the Antler Trail a deer paused before it ran off -- perhaps a sign that there is a fawn nearby.
May 31 During a kayak tour of South Bay, we got caught in a shower and were startled by one loud clap of thunder. So when I headed off on foot at 5 pm and heard thunder, I parsed my planned hike for possible shelter. At Audubon Pond where I wanted to check on the water level, there is a covered bench, and at Shangri-la Pond there is a mammoth porcupine cave, big enough for me and several dozen porcupines. So I mushed on. On our kayak tour we saw mating carp and I heard them still as I walked along the South Bay trail. A vulture flew off from a tree, and then as I continued on I saw two vultures sitting on a big branch on the grass under the power lines, rather making themselves at home
When I got too close, they flew off and were joined by another vulture up in a tree. Then back along the bay, I saw a heron land in the water and float on it like a swam. I got closer for a photo and the heron dropped a fish and flew off. I think it had landed next to a dying fish, hence no need for stalking. I ruined its meal. Then I saw two deer on the other side of the trail, in the woods. They are getting their reddish coat.
The larger deer in the back seemed eager to flee but the little one even started browsing again. They didn't flee until I got behind them. When I got up to Audubon Pond, I was surprised to see that the water did not drop much at all,
maybe a foot. I didn't look at the drain after the workmen finished clearing it. From where I sat watching them from across the pond, it looked like they removed logs and raked or hoed off the mud. The owl remains guarding the drain, but there were sticks and mud under it, which I presume the beavers put back there to stem the flow, unimpressed by the fake owl.
I soon saw a muskrat swimming to burrows in the east end of the embankment, and then saw another muskrat enjoying the grasses along the north end of the embankment.
Last year when they cleared the drain, the pond lost a few feet of water and the muskrats had to relocate. Another muskrat swam over from the burrows behind the bench, but just bothered the grass, not the other muskrat. The muskrats are also using the burrows on the other side of the causeway, foraging in the shallow pond there.
I also saw a pair of geese with goslings, but they stayed in the tall grass and I couldn't count them. Above Audubon Pond there are several old beaver ponds now mostly turning into meadow. None can support beavers as they once did, but I did see a muskrat in one small pool.
This is a banner year for muskrats. On the way to Thicket Pond, I slipped on a log below Meander Pond and took a knee in the muck, so I was a bit rattled when I settled beside Thicket Pond. I heard a woodpecker and frogs kept jumping in the pond, but no beavers, no ripples from them. The storm clouds made
the pond dark and I could see all the stripped logs on the huge lodge once again about to be concealed by the buttonbushes
How could the beavers leave that mansion? After waiting twenty minutes, I headed for Shangri-la Pond dam, I did see some branches cut off the maple, one of the last trees cut by the beavers, and the water in the upper end of the pond looked a bit muddy
I knew on my way home I would pass the pond again, and maybe a beaver would be out in it. When I got a view of the Shangri-la Pond dam from the ridge, I could see by the mud that the beavers had expanded their foraging
and I soon saw a beaver, balled up in the water behind the dam. Then I saw a beaver hunched up near the pile of stripped sticks I have been noticing. I also saw something black in the duck weed shaped like a beaver
Well, soon enough that shape swam over toward the pile. Grand as Thicket Pond is, it doesn't have this green carpet.
One of the beavers dove and came up with a mouthful of green vegetation. Thicket Pond doesn't have that either. The other beaver I had seen swam over to the dam and up to the tree trunk they've been stripping.
I also saw persistent ripples in another section of the pond, but I couldn't see the beaver. So four beavers appear to have moved from Thicket Pond to Shangri-la Pond. I'll watch these ponds again. My theories, that now appear blasted, deserve as much. But I'll have some difficulty explaining the reasons and timing for their move, if all the beavers have left Thicket Pond. But who cares about theory -- how beautiful they appeared in the pond below. No more sneaking peaks of them as they peered out at me from under the buttonbushes. There was a loud roll of thunder as I watched one beaver -- it didn't seem to notice. Then I checked another beaver and its head was up with concern. No way it could have been smelling me. The thunder had me thinking too, and I decided to hurry home. Not even pausing, as my rush was probably causing, the chick-burr alarm call of a scarlet tanager. I just beat the rain.
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