August 2006
August 2 we have a heat wave impossible to work in and even a walk gets you in a lather. It started yesterday and I parked myself at our dock diverted now and then by ducks, ducklings, little ducklings, and geese. The latter are flying again. No congregation of gulls and I saw one pick up and then drop a small dead fish. Might be one of the gulls used to eating those higher things over the trees a few days ago. Today I planned to check Audubon Pond and then go in the shade to the ponds beyond the third swamp -- a good hike. I biked to the park entrance, paused to take some video of the redwing blackbird fledges hopping on the lily pads and then half way round Audubon Pond, I was so hot and sweaty that I sat down and made a change in plans. Not a bad place to sit. The woods were full of life. I saw a squirrel, chipmunk, robin, blue jay, flickers, and heard peewees, phoebes, vireos and a few birds I couldn't identify. We all enjoyed the cool. These trees are probably 40 to 50 years old, not dense, the wind gets through.
On the fringe of the woods, a pileated woodpecker was working, despite the heat.
There were no new otter scats behind the bank lodge. So I suppose one or two otters had just come up off the river -- not looking for a long time residence, which is typical for this pond. The beavers are still taking ash, no more work on the big one they started on. They found smaller fare further along,
though a tree right by the trail is not small.
Ash strikes me as dry fare especially in this heat, but these beavers seem to specialize in it. At least they are not exerting themselves to take branches and logs to the lodge, yet. There were no scats out at the bench and nothing new at the lodge. I narrowed the scope of my hike. I decided to sit in the shade with a good view of the muskrat burrows on the other side of the Audubon Pond causeway, and then find some shade near Thicket Pond and then go home. My seat with a view of the causeway had shade and wind, but no muskrats to watch. But any seat is good for a 20 minute rest and I was curious to see if there was as much activity in the woods behind me as there had been on the other side of Audubon Pond -- actually didn't hear one bird. I think the red oaks attract more birds than the hickories then behind me. Then five minutes before I was about to leave, a deer followed by her fawn came racing down the causeway. My camera came to life in time to capture them
just before they went up into the woods behind me. Of course, I stood for another picture but they shot off quicker than my flash. I waited for what fearsome thing put them in such a trot in this heat, but nothing came down the trail. I continued to hear deer snorting behind me but when I walked on with camcorder cocked, they were not to be seen. I wanted to get to the north side of Thicket Pond and decided to cross below Meander Pond dam. A brush with a nettle and the gripping of some cutting grass made me pause and I noticed button bush flowers passing their prime
on modest plants on the edge of the pond.
Up on the ridge, there was a dense stand of pilewort, the lush flower that never blooms. Some were as tall as me
and others I could look down on.
Not that I get airs around this plant which seems to promise such fireworks. Button bushes are what make the thickets of Thicket Pond. And I must say, that the thickets there do not compare to the thickets of what I'm calling Paradise Pond that I discovered a few days ago above the Upper Second Swamp Pond dam. Indeed the north shore of Thicket Pond is quite open allowing me to see the elegant curve of the muddy beaver canal
The fresh work at the end of the canal raised the issue of why some leaves of cut trees die immediately and why others stay green.
The beavers had done of bit of gnawing on a small white oak trunk, and that presented another question to ponder. Why did a beaver gnaw into white bark when there was outer bark and prized inner bark still to eat?
Going around the east end of the pond, I noticed that they had started to drag one small tree, then stopped.
Whenever I see them drag a tree they seem so indefatigable. But I think there is some clock in a beaver that makes them stop what they are doing and move on to something else. Finally there was a small tree cut on the slope heading down to the East Trail Pond.
I am half hoping these beavers will go into that valley right in the middle of a large watershed, as opposed to being at the beginning of a small one. A colony with their talent could certainly milk the surrounding woods, and swamps for all they are worth. As I crossed back over the dry creek coming out of the second swamp, I noticed raccoon tracks, but some looked eccentric enough to be made by an otter. I went up to the New Pond knoll but nothing new there. Coming back along the other side of the creek, I saw a cardinal flower.
They used to grew in the shade a little up from the creek, I'm glad that the beavers opening up the area did not end the cardinal's reign.
August 3 after a bit of rain at night the temperature dropped, but it was still humid even with a light north wind. I headed off in the kayak for my South Bay tour a little early and thought I might push on around Eel Bay a bit in my search for otter signs. But I dutifully went to the willow latrine in the south cove of South Bay first and mused on my way there as to why the otters were not in South Bay. Usually I blame shallow water and choking vegetation. Not so bad on both counts this year. I was distracted by a Caspian tern chasing a diving osprey and then getting chased in turn by another Caspian tern. Herons repositioned themselves. I paddled up to the moss bank of the willow latine and noted how the vegetation was growing, another sign of no otters. Then I heard a splash behind me and thought it a bit odd that a fish would stir a few minutes after I passed over it. Then an otter pup surfaced in front of me! Then the next time it surfaced it noticed me, and dove. I studied the water underneath me, then it was right up again and blowing a snort right at me. It swam under the willow trunk and scooted up on the runway near the bank lodge. It went up on the lodge -- I couldn't see well -- I thought it might go into the lodge, but it slipped back in the water and swam up to me snorting, then dove. I heard it surface behind me. I was keeping still and stayed that way for a few beats, but not hearing it anymore, I turned and thought I heard it in the nearby cattails. Well, this was a contrary bit of tracking, entirely unexpected sighting and completely confusing because there was no sign of the mother otter. I know the mother that usually raises pups here can let her pups alone, but before she has always been in the vicinity and if I didn't see her, she screeched or chirped. There is no doubt that I saw an otter pup, and a rather cute one with such derring-do. I waited a good fifteen minutes by the marsh but heard nothing. Then I sniffed around the willow latrine but got no whiff of scats. While doing that I noticed there was fresh beaver gnawing on the willow trunk thrust out above the water and a branch nipped. I paddled around the point to see if there were otter signs in the latrines in the north cove. On the way I saw a mother mallard high up on a deck of grass washed onto the shore and about a yard away were three little ducklings heads down for a nap. I didn't notice anything new at the latrines. On my trip to Picton the other day, I saw a live-trap on the rocks near the boat house where I saw otter slides back in February. That gnawed on me and I paddled out to it to see if it was still set and could possibly be meant for otters, to prevent their fouling the boat house. The owners were there, cleaning the boat house, and I asked if they noticed any otter scats in the spring. They hadn't and were currently bothered by minks, hence the live-trap. We had a nice chat about minks, muskrats, and beavers, who had felled some oaks behind them three years ago, but they had never seen nor conceived of otters being there. Since I was out on the Murray Island shore I paddled around to take another look at the bank beaver lodge tucked in the bay west of the Narrows. I saw schools of small sunnies and some rock bass around the lodge. Ottoleo had enthused about the channels in the mud and through the grass, and I studied them more closely wondering if they were deepened by beavers in the winter to help them manage under the ice. Then I noticed that some hemlocks on the shore had been girdled. More like the bark was stripped off, not gnawed.
After dinner I wemt out in the kayak again to see if I could see an otter family. Seeing the pup suggests to me that I did see a mother and pup around the latrine a month ago as I suspected. But where was the mother now? Unfortunately a kid in a kayak was fishing in that part of the bay, frequently yelling back to a grown-up on a dock. Then the kid docked and I drifted, waiting for something to happen -- nothing. I paddled over to the north cove and again saw nothing, but as I neared the rock latrine there, I thought I heard a beaver humming back in the marsh, back where I expected otters to have a refuge. Soon a beaver cruised out from the marsh and wasted no time in slapping its tail at me, again and again. The humming suggests that there is more than one beaver back in the marsh, but none joined the slapper. I also heard a loon calling from the entrance to South Bay. Then I went back to the south cove and drifted down to the willow latrine as it got dark. By 9pm the mosquitoes were too much, and nothing was happening. Maybe I'll try at dawn.
August 4 I almost went out at dawn, but instead hiked out to the willow latrine at about 10:30 am. Things had changed there. The water was even higher and it looked like willow was being pulled to the hole at the edge of the marsh which now has water flooding out of it. There are willow branches packed on the beaver lodge there. The hole is patched.
But I was looking for otter scats and I didn't see any. Was the poor otter pup lost? came back to the lodge, went to the hole and found it patched by the beavers? Well, it was too nice a day for too much anxiety. A water snake was resting on a stick just out of the water a few feet off the shore.
Then a kingfisher landed in the willow branch right above me, but the batteries of my camera were dead. I also saw a turtle nosing about off shore. I walked slowly through the woods leading to the latrine but saw no sign of otters there. After lunch I headed off in the kayak for the rock latrine along the south shore of the north cove of South Bay. I wore shoes so I could get out and look for otter scat there. The mother had to be somewhere! Before climbing out on the erratic granite boulder by the edge of the rock, I paddled around to the side where the otters have been scatting, just in case they were there, I told myself. I saw a fresh bit of bullhead, a promising sign and then I heard of slight slap of water and there was the otter pup swimming again at the bow of the kayak! Then the mother's head popped up and down. They both fled and I heard snort in the cattail marsh. I backed away and floated down the bay propelled by a brisk wind. I didn't see them again but I did hear loud chirps in the marsh -- just as I am used to hearing when mother otters take alarm. Perhaps her concern means that there is another pup or two that she was calling into the fold. Last year the mother always had one pup at her side and one off on its own. So with all now right with world, I enjoyed a baby turtle, and an osprey flew down from the woods and called to me. I debated whether I should still get out and look for scats, and since the chirping seemed to come from the center of the marsh rather than the rocks on its western edge, I decided it was safe to go. I managed getting out of the kayak easily enough. I saw one scat on the rock by the water that I should have noticed before. Then I got back to the rock back at the edge of the marsh, and sure enough there were black smears of scat above the roots and holes that I thought might make a good otter den. That area is flooded but I saw no sign that otters or beavers were using it. The grass near the rock was quite pressed down and then the rock on the other side of the grass had more scats on it and I could see trails going into the marsh. These scats were much like the ones I saw in Audubon Pond. Near the wet areas I saw a little plant that looked a bit different. I took a sprig and identified it as wild mint, the only native mint.
Back in the kayak I went back to the south cove and drifted down that, entertained by a young osprey trying to get the hang of diving into the water. On one aborted flight I thought it was going to satisfy itself by just getting a redwing blackbird fledge hopping on the lily fronds flapping in the brisk breeze. The osprey showed a good deal of indecision and a rather low angle of attack. The wind couldn't be helping matters. Caspian terns and swallows were also about. As for the otters, I bet it is a family of three, but at least I know now that it is a family.
August 5 I took a late afternoon hike around South Bay to see if there were any otter signs at the latrines I usually check on. I had noticed some poop on the pipe near the the creek into the north cove and decided I best check that. They were quite long and stringy and struck me as skunk scat, certainly not from otters. That said, I can't picture a skunk climbing up on that pipe which is about two feet or more in diameter. I next checked the old dock latrine and I could see straight away that things looked different. Not only had something come up in the grass to the dock and not only did the dirt on top of the dock look more worn down, but a good bit of viney vegetation had been gathered up from the bottom of the water near the dock, as if to improve the channel to the dock.
When I turned back to go a little up the slope to take a seat and study the bay, I saw some otter scats a few feet up the slope.
They were very black smears with fish scales. So the otters may very well be using this dock as a den. I sat for about fifteen minutes and thanks to the ways of that baby otter, I was alert to every splash in the water, but am pretty sure only fish and frogs made the waves. Two fighting kingfishers landed near me with some unearthly cackling. Then they zoomed off fighting all across the bay. While I didn't see any scats at the docking rock latrine, I did see a path in the grass coming up from the rock. At the latrine at the entrance to South Bay, I saw many paths in the grass and think the geese are still coming up here.
It's a bit of a climb for them but certainly boss green grass.
Then I walked around Audubon Pond and saw a good bit of scat just above the bank lodge.
So the otters have been back there. It looked like two day's worth of scat because one set of smears looked fresher -- a bug flew off.
Then when I got to the litte bridge there was scat on it and some on the grass on the bank.
So evidently the mother is keeping the family moving, which I've noticed before. In other years the mother took the pups from the bay up to the East Trail Pond. My guess is that the ponds that do have fish are now too far away and the path to them thick with grass. But I expect the otters to get up to the Second Swamp Pond, and I should check that pond next. I was surprised to see an ash cut not far from the bank lodge. I hadn't noticed it before.
There is a lot to trim but the beavers have not made much of a dent. There were smaller ash nearby that the beavers didn't touch.
I did see two stripped sticks in the water near the bank lodge. The beavers have not done any more work on the ash they cut and were cutting on the north shore. As I walked up to the bench, something, and then another thing, scurried through the grass and then, as I walked on, into the water. I suspected they were baby muskrats and sure enough before they swam under water into the nearby burrows, I saw one little rat tail wave in the air. These burrows not only have cut cattails outside them but even a sapling, so I had wondered if beavers denned there. But today the muskrats were definitely at home.
Baby muskrats live a fast life and have a tendency to come back out in a few minutes. I think one did but only to swim under water to the beaver lodge nearby out in the pond. There were no new otter scats at the bench. I walked along the causeway to see if the otters had scatted there. I saw something reddish brown in the grass and thought it might be another baby muskrat -- muskrat burrows are nearby. Then I saw the animal striking a pose in the grass -- a groundhog. With water on either side of it, I thought this was a curious place for a groundhog to be. As I walked on, it simply moved into the deep grass. I didn't follow to see if it might jump in the water. There are at least two holes dug down into the causeway in the middle of the trail. Judging from poop deposited at the entrance, I assumed they were holes dug by foxes to get at muskrats. Perhaps ground hogs dug them. Since it was dinner time, I bent my head down and hurried home, pausing to look at the ruckus for Caspian terns were making over South Bay.
August 6 another visitor to our house, a brown bat sleeping under a tarp on the wafer board of the wall
August 7 Another late afternoon kayak tour around South Bay, with another good west wind propelling me down the south cove. There was nothing new at the willow latrine, but as I paddled away from it, I saw a small gray animal hunched up on a bit of floating cattail. It was the size of a baby muskrat, but too gray, I think. I tried to see if there was any white on its belly, but it kept that protected. Its back was to me and even when it scratched its back with its back foot, I couldn't see the belly. The foot looked much like a muskrats, so now I will have to get a photo of a water shrew's feet. Didn't have my camera, not that it would have elucidated much. It dove and I didn't see it again. As I paddled up through the scudding waves, two redwing blackbird fledges were dancing from lily pad to lily pad in front of me. One was getting bugs, but the other seemed only interested in the sport, and it indeed looks like fun. Not only was there nothing new at the otter latrines in the north cove but when I got down to the old dock, I saw that the otters had not improved a channel to the dock by digging up some vegetation. An old log was washed up to the dock and it had the vegetation on it. I trailed a kingbird that was quite adept at swooping down over the lily pads, nabbing a bug and then perching back up on the bobbing brown cattail flowers. Heading up the bay, I paused to watch a heron dipping ineffectually into the water off the point which I think an unlikely place to stab a fish -- must be a rookie.
August 8 a cooler day so I headed to the ponds and at the Second Swamp Pond dam saw a sign that otters might have possibly come over the dam. For the first time in a while, some grass there was pressed down.
However, the water was muddy below me, the south end of the dam, where I know muskrats have a burrow. Then I was distracted by a strange noise coming from the small trees below the dam, like something letting the air out of a balloon but without letting it squeal. A cicada not quite in tune? Then there was another, which seemed to scotch my first theory. I'll have to go over frog calls again. I angled up to the Lost Swamp Pond to take advantage of the north wind. That did allow me to get close to some striking ducks, juvenile mallards with rich rosy brown breast. There were a few geese on the pond too, and I flushed an oprey out of the trees above. I sat up on a comfortable and shaded rock and waited for a half hour to see what might be happening in the pond. The lodge in front of me had grown and the beiges and browns of the added logs and branches made it look quite vibrant, like another of the summer's many growths
I soon heard some humming from it. Eventually I saw one beaver munching something in the distance. It dove and I didn't see it again. I stood next to the bank beaver lodge, but nothing stirred inside. Then I was distracted by the thistles around it that seemed to be having a second bloom as the first went to seed.
Not all the plants are doing so famously. The dry spell we're now having has wilted some of the pilewort that had been popping up
And the wind, I think, blew down a maple that the beavers had girdled two years ago. This tree is right above where the beavers liked to lounge in the afternoon, but I didn't see any fresh gnawing on it.
I saw two trails in the grass coming up the north slope so I looked hard for otter scats but I didn't see any. Of course the beavers are still coming up on the slope getting things to eat -- even some dogbane was cut and floating in the muddy, beaver churned water.
From this side of the pond I could see that the beavers had armored this side of the lodge with dirt.
Usually don't see such work this early in the year, but these beavers built a whole lodge in August a few years ago. I didn't go down to the Upper Second Swamp pond since I wanted to hurry on and check Audubon Pond for otter scats. On the way I saw that there was nothing new at the old dock latrine, and there was nothing new at Audubon Pond. Instead of fresh otter scat behind the bank lodge they have been favoring, I saw a flotilla of beaver stripped sticks.
Evidently they have moved back in. No beavers to be seen today, but once again I saw the groundhog, this time on the embankment. He posed again
and you can make out his silhouette.
August 9 again a blustery day as I toured South Bay and as I floated past the willow latrine, I saw too rather lodge bryozoa with one breaking up in the waves. Then I saw a smaller one floating along the raft of cut grass at the end of the cove. Strange that I see only big bryozoa and not that many. There seemed to be more herons about today. They looked quite new, but, of course, even old herons molt and get new feathers, but these herons were so polite, hardly croaking at me. So my guess is that they are fledges. Meanwhile an adult osprey was still putting two osprey fledges through their paces. Never see two herons together at this time of year. Nothing new at the willow latrine save for a few more branches added to the lodge, and a little more gnawing on the willow. No new otter signs anywhere along the shore. As I headed to the point, I saw that the beavers had girdled a large ash along the shore. To get out of the wind, I propped myself on a small rock along the north shore of the bay and studied the marsh hoping an otter would pop out -- my eyes closed on me, now and then. So I bestirred myself and not a few feet away up the shore there was not an otter sign, but beavers had cut down a clump of alder right at the base and there was a little eating platform fashioned on the shore. There is plenty of alder nearby that hadn't been touched. These beavers are going hither and yon shopping for their meals. I even found a chunk of cattail rhizome that really looked like a beaver ate it.
I took it home to get close up on the end
to see if I could discern the marks of a beaver's teeth.
Maybe. Since I didn't see any otter signs around the ponds yesterday, not seeing signs around the bay today suggested there absence which I was not prepared to accept. So I paddled over to the rock on the south shore of the north cove, climbed out of the kayak and checked the concealed rock overlooking the marsh. Here I saw more scats, though nothing wet. I was barefoot which made me a little more venturesome and I got down on the rock and pushed down toward the water in the marsh, but much as this fired my imagination, I saw no signs there that I was following an otter's footsteps. I did notice that the flowers of the wild mint were getting a little blue. I walked over to the rock along the bay and before I waded into the grasses there, I saw what I was looking for, a dramatic new latrine. Not only had the otters knocked down the fronds of the blue flag iris, but they had knocked down some mint, so for once I could bend over new otter scats and get a whiff of fragrant mint tea. The centerpiece looked a bit like a scent mound. Next calm day, I bring my camera over. I wish the otter mother would prop her pups on those accessible rocks along the shore, but I can't blame her for favoring this softer, greener, and more fragrant back water accessible to and protected by the marsh.
August 10 a gentle cold front moved through but with only light rain. It came, as usual, with a wind along the river out of the east, which I hoped would blow the water level down enough so that I could hike out through the South Bay marsh to the otter latrine I discovered yesterday. Fortunately it was cool and relatively bugless pushing through the eight foot tall cattails. There was only about ten feet of wet going and with all but one step I found dead cattail stalks. And the wet step only half swallowed the shoe and the mud gave it back without much of a struggle. Once on the island I went straight to what I now call the mint latrine
Indeed it still smelled like mint tea. Of course I bent down to see the array of scat and one of the crushed mints.
Then I stepped back to show the rock latrine by the water that the otters usually use.
I wonder if my snooping about has caused them to favor this more secluded spot. I still have to see the family as a group. With one pup in 2004 and two pups in 2005, the mother was less secretive. Next to the mint
there was another mint-like flower, common speedwell.
Then I went back to the rocks surrounded by marsh and woods. No mint smell here, only the smell of old scat, a bit acrid and not so fishy. I sat low behind the rock, the better to get the otter view of it, and I could sense the security the venerable rim of granite provided.
Here was a contrast between the quick black waste from the otter and the pink flecked rock just a half billion years old.
Most scats were more or less smears, but a few were rich with scales and other fish hardware
The grassy rolling area between the two rocks looked well used, but no scats there.
There was a scat just at the side which I think is new. Then I got low to contemplate the otter paths into the thick marsh
Too brief was this otter idyll, but from their calls I could tell I was disturbing some birds, and the marsh must have reeked with my scent, and I wouldn't want the otters to discover me in their refuge. I checked some of the rocks along the south shore of the island, but saw nothing but goose scat there. A branch heavy with seed fell, and something nipped off the leaves,
so I guess deer still get out here but I can't believe the fawn I saw over a month ago has been here all the time. Before wading back into the marsh, I took a photo of it.
Experience under my belt, I got back in good fashion. When I got to the willow latrine, I could see how much lower the water was because of the east wind, at least 3 or 4 inches. Beavers continue to pile branches and logs on the lodge.
I sat here for fifteen minutes and heard no stirring from the lodge. A vireo did visit,
as well as a phoebe, and the fish were active in the surrounding water. There were no scats around, just some fresh raccoon poop. However, there was still a runway up the lodge from the water.
The beavers probably use that too, but it seems a tight way to bring branches up. Maybe I'll stay out in the kayak late into the night and see some action here. Going back to my trail I had to pay compliments to the berries, quite lush this heavy season.
by Bob Arnebeck
Check out my other web pages: otters; beavers; minks; muskrats;porcupines;Leslie's art