Beaver damage

The beavers have been busy again this winter, taking down more trees.

There seems to be no purpose behind this -- they don't use the lumber, the trees are increasingly far away from their dam, and there's a bunch of half-chewed trees all around. When I asked him about it, Rick said that beaver behavior is a lot like humans. Sometimes they just cut down trees because they want to.

I've yet to see a lodge, but they have two dams in the nearby stream which ensure a regular flow of water. The stream didn't freeze over all winter.

Identifying Critters

Living up in the North woods introduces a number of new experiences, one of which is 'critter identification'.

This one yesterday was pretty easy ... I could recognize the 5 turkeys right outside the my bedroom window this morning.



















This one was from a few months back, I thought it might be a mink and I had to ask Rick to help me identify it. It was a marten:








I have purchased a few books recommended by the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, they should help me with critter identification in the future.

This photo was from October, it's a beaver dam about 15 feet upstream from me. The photo was taken right after a major rainfall. I haven't managed to grab a photo of a beaver yet.















I know, I know ... I also need to learn how to take better photos. Many of the critter photos are taken in a hurry before the animals run away, through 2 panes of glass.

My neighbor has a camera rigged up with a motion detector to take photos of bears when they pass by. I don't have any black bear photos yet -- but plenty of sightings. They were quite aggressive in the fall of 2006 due to the drought in the area.