Spring at the beaver pond

 The beavers are active now early in the morning and late afternoon and of course all night. They seem very relaxed even though I am worried about their diminished food supply. I have been bringing them poplar saplings and apples twice a day. I have seen four kits, but have not seen the much tamer parents since last September. Tulla and I have searched the woods above and below the five ponds, hoping to find them setting up shop in another location but no luck. My fear is that in their wanderings further and further from the pond they have fallen prey to coyotes or bear. The young kits seem to be surviving well with out them, but I miss  close relationship that had developed with the parents over the five years that I have known them. There are three two year old kits and one much smaller one year old.

 Their winter coats are thick and healthy . As the water warms they will lose their extra fur and probably look much smaller. They don’t seem to interact much except this one late afternoon when I saw the two siblings grooming each other. They were enjoying the first warm sun and helping each other to have a good scratch. How thrilling it is to catch them out of the water feeling safe enough to stay even when I am close by. I have been so lucky to live  by this pond which has grown from a puddle to a deep pond of more than 12 acres in the six years since the first beaver arrived. They are six dams, one very long one and then five smaller ones downstream. The last dam is near the culvert that runs under our road. The beavers try to dam the culvert. I spend  an inordinate amount of time undoing their work, sometimes daily. I worry about the kits who have moved on to less hospitable environments. With encroaching development we have fewer and fewer places for them to live. Our beaver pond has been a home for beavers off and on for over 100 years. It is an old mill pond. When the mill was abandoned the opportunistic beavers took over.  We marvel at their ingenuity and ability to control their environment. They share the pond with Great Blue Heron, an occasional Eagle, many kinds of ducks and sometimes noisy geese. The pond is a very busy place at this time of year,peaceful, yet teeming with activity.