Beavers Emerge From the Ice

We were all pleased to find that our beaver colony made it through this record breaking cold winter. All 9 members were accounted for this week as the ice finally receded from the their main pond. Of course, just lately the ice has been reforming at night, but thin ice is no problem for beavers to deal with. In fact they seem to relish busting it up in their various ways.

Julia swims just beneath the ice

Beaver heads make great ice-breakers

Breaking ice with your back also works surprisingly well

Wen (1-year old) and Tippy (3-year old) often emerge from the lodge together

Tippy comes out of the water to ask for a carrot

Another 1-year old scores an apple

Extracting a carrot from the dam

GenLo manages to hold both a carrot and an apple piece - this trick is a hard one for most beavers to manage

Snacks are disappearing in all directions

Checking to see if there are more carrots on the dam

Julia, the colony's matriarch, is the most adept at breaking ice

Wherever she goes in the pond, Julia makes it a point to break ice 

Wen brings a mouth full of Pussy Willow branches back o the lodge

Julia comes for some branches - note the ice on her head

Posing by the dam

Muskrat under ice

Three Muskrats seek out beaver snacks

A Muskrat coming up onto the snow

Muskrats searching for overlooked carrot pieces

The muskrat lodge towers over the ice in the second pond

Still lots of ice-breaking left to do