The Beavers Prep for Winter

Our Beaver Colony started making preparations for the upcoming winter over a month ago, but now they are really stepping it up. The underwater food cache has been growing by leaps and bounds. Lots of saplings and even a few larger trees have been felled and dragged down to the pond. The dams are being fortified too, which is a good thing since during the winter, dam maintenance becomes difficult if not impossible.  Just last week the beavers decided to resurrect one of the lower ponds. This particular pond (Sarah's Pond) was at one time the largest pond on the property. A dam breech drained it 2 years ago; in the intervening time it has become what is known as a "beaver meadow", characterized by rich silted-up soil and dominated by wildflowers and grasses.

The beavers' growing food cache holds a diverse mix of tree branches

One of the adults goes off to find trees - note the kit following behind

Two kits engage in a shoving match while another watches from shore

A kit returns with a small contribution to the food cache

A kit munches on Aspen bark

Kit and an adult both partaking of Aspen leaves

The underwater view

Working to patch the long broken dam at Sarah's Pond

For this task they used a lot of mud, turf and goldenrod

Tartarian Honeysuckle boughs were also used since they were close at hand

The water started visibly rising as the beavers worked

At night White-tailed Deer feed on the plants that cover the beaver dam

By day, a Great Blue Heron patrols the dam looking for fish and frogs

A Green Frog sits in the shallows alongside the dam

Hooded Merganser and Mallard swimming at the beaver pond