Beavers have made a comeback in Massachusetts, with the concerted effort to protect wetlands and beavers. Particularly visible are the beaver lodges.
Equally visible are the dams that beavers build. The dam in the following image is about 3 feet in height and extends across the entire lower end of this pond - in fact making the pond. In fact, on the most recent topographical sheets this body of water is marked as a marshy wet area, not a pond. And yet, all of the years that I have hiked here it has been a pond - created and maintained by beavers.
Beavers have made a production of gnawing through many of dozens of trees - in some areas clear-cutting trees of the size in this image. Several years ago a group of beavers took down all of the trees in a small area over the course of a single season - seemed every day another huge tree was down.
This group of beaver photos come from one opportune morning. The photos on this page are collected over a number of years. To actually see a beaver is a treat, however. Sure - the head of a beaver swimming down the middle of the pond. In this case I was out before 7am, and right at sunup. And I suspect I was sitting right where the beaver wanted to go, as it kept swimming in circles and giving me the eye, as well as slapping the water. I was on a well traveled trail, but probably not so much at that hour!
Detail - in the photo above the body of the beaver is especially visible, breaking the surface of the water. I find the beaver hard to photograph, in this image the fur of the animal can be seen.
Detail - in the photo above is the whole beaver - head, body and tail. Most often only the head is visible as the beaver swims. Sometimes some of the body shows. Rarely have I seen the tail. Here the tail is right at the surface and the beaver is swimming with some speed - I like how the water is rippling over that tail!
The beaver uses a tail slap as a warning - the sound is loud and carries. This beaver slapped the water several times before I left, and I got the two series of photos, below. The last time I saw this was four years ago - those photos follow, and one shows the tail very clearly. In these two series the tail is not so easy to see, but the magnitude of the splash is very apparent.
Of some amusement for those of us who were not inconvenienced, beavers built a dam that was responsible for flooding out a road providing access to a good number of houses. State law prohibits damaging or removing a beaver dam, and the road remained flooded and impassible for quite some time - I recall well beyond a year. In the time since, outflows to ponds have been protected by devices such as this - a trapezoidal fence around the outflow, with a buried pipe extending from the center of the pond. The beaver dam was built several years later. The upwelling of water flowing through the buried tube is very apparent, and succeeds at keeping the level of the pond at reasonable height while not flooding out the access road.
Posted beside this construction is an informational sign.
Beavers are nocturnal, and in fact I have seldom seen a beaver during the day - and I hike these wetlands every week, often early in the morning, but I can be out any time of day into late afternoon. One day followed a very heavy rain that raised the pond by several inches - and brought beavers out during the day from all over. They made quite a spectacle, swimming and making their warning by bringing their tail down on the water to make a loud noise and most impressive splash.
The beaver's warning crack with their tail is in response to some perceived threat - I cannot imagine going out with the intention of photographing such a splash - unpredictable and infrequent. In fact, I did not even know I had gotten this next image until I returned home and reviewed my photos for the day! But what luck - the fully visible tail and remarkable splash.
This image is a bit after the splash, and I thought the pattern of the splash was interesting. The beaver is just visible in front of the splash.
One morning in early winter this pond was just freezing over. I noticed a log, clearly cut on either end, about 8 feet in length, on the surface of the new (and thin) ice, and then realized there were other lengths of wood also on the ice.
A closer shot of the nearer log.
And then I noticed this tree, up the hill. Clearly the end has been cut clean, and far from the stump of the tree. But I was especially caught by the next cut on the tree - making a new log about 8 feet in length.
and nearby this tree - with wood chips present on the ground where it has been cut, and another pile of chips about 8 feet along the tree. And the cut sections were not in the area. in fact, returning a week later the length in the picture above was missing.
And now, looking at a fresh beaver lodge, I have a new appreciation for the logs making up the structure, cut to similar length, and many of a diameter that the log would have significant weight - I don't know how these beavers go about moving these!
A cold winter with lots of snow - and not much showing of this beaver lodge positioned in the middle of a shallow pond - made, of course, by a beaver dam!