Beside the Stream

I took these pictures of the newly refurbished beaver lodge and pond on November 19.

You can see that the lodge is substantial–Suzy thinks 9 feet, I’d guess 8 feet tall, and plenty wide.

The pond is clearly delineated, and it looks like it’s well established but it’s brand new.  Don’t you like that fully peeled trunk on perimeter?  They did.  

This photo was taken at about the same spot on August 12,

and this shot was taken three weeks later.  They’ve kept the basic outlines since then, and refined it.

This is a mid-August photo of their lodge, which was formerly an abandoned pile of sticks in a meadow.

This is taken from the other side of that same lodge on the same day.  In mid-August, there was a few inches of new water around it.  It didn’t look like much, but the beavers had big plans.   

This is the same lodge from nearly the same point of view about 3 months later.   Jessie is helpfully providing scale (though she’s very large).  In fact, this pile is so big that the cottonwood trunk in the last photo has been completely covered.  The beavers just patted on lots and lots of mud–you can see their handprints from last night’s work–and when the whole thing freezes it’s going to be impermeable.

To the right of the lodge is vast stash of twigs.  They’re sticking out of the water, but they’re stored from the bottom of the pond on up: it’s more twigs than meets the eye.  This is the beaver’s winter pantry, ready for the days when it’s too cold to go out for food.   We have Thanksgiving on Thursday, but those beavers must be giving thanks every time they peek out their door and see that big stash of food for the winter.   There’s nothing quite so cozy as a full larder.