Rain, rain and more rain. I had no intention of going out today but after hearing the otter had been spotted at the millpond, when there was a break in the rain this morning I risked a quick outing. I wished two things when I arrived at the park....I had taken the long lens and a wide angle lens. I just planned on being able to move quickly between showers if needed so I traveled light.
No sign of the otters but there were beavers! There has been so much rain that the beavers had been flooded out of their lodge. Over the past several months they have increased the dome size probably making a two layer lodge but obviously the water breached the higher layer.
Several times as I was watching them one would go under but quickly come back out. The two younger beavers spent much of the time swimming about while the two adults chewed on clumps of dried grass, twigs and eventually spent time grooming each other.
This is one of the younger beavers. I saw two swimming together while the two adults were on land grooming. The two younger are quite a bit lighter in color than the adults.
Hopefully the water will recede quickly enough they can get back in their lodge by nightfall.
4 comments:
Great pictures Paula. How neat to be able to watch animals in their natural setting! Love that last photo.
Thanks Liz. I felt sort of sorry for the creatures. They kept trying to go back into the lodge but had to come back out. Since they are generally nocturnal, I think they felt vulnerable exposed during the daytime. It was cool to be able to watch them though.
I like all of the pics, Paula, but I really like the first one. Can't believe that you went out yesterday. I think you had more rain than we did and we got almost an inch
Thanks Gladys. This post was from Monday....yesterday was too miserable! We had a little over 2 inches according the the rain gauge. Lots of localized flooding with the ground already saturated. We have a light coating of ice on plants and elevated surfaces this morning. Not a good day to be outside.
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