Yesterday morning’s kayak adventure was totally awesome! I went out expecting to get some fog images, but very little fog was hanging over the water. Instead, I was greeted with at least 7 beavers (Castor canadensis) active, both in and out of the water. The place I kayaked today has at least 2 large, active beaver lodges; a third one exists, but I’m not sure it is being used anymore. When I arrived at the larger of the 2 lodges, there were 2 adult beavers standing in a foot of water, tangled up in a wrestling match. They were busy rolling, biting, and general rough-housing. As I pulled the kayak to a stop and started photographing, a loud splash just feet from the kayak alerted me that a third beaver was out of the water and chewing on a branch … until he heard my camera! But the 2 “wrestlers” were so engrossed with their playing that they never saw me, or the third beaver as it hit the water. Unfortunately, all this action was on the other side of a shallow stand of trees (this lodge is built into a dike around the main creek area, but with all the rain we’ve been getting, there is standing water on the backside of the dike, too) and I had to shoot through the trees, in low light conditions, since sunrise was still ~10 minutes away.
But the beavers’ activities continued for another hour or so and included swimming around the kayak, and multiple “tail slaps”. Here are a few of the beaver images I managed to capture:
“The Lunchroom” (note the many chewed-off branch ends in this image)
“Stare Down”
“Junior out for a stroll”
Yesterday’s adventure was a big lift to recovering from my spring fever symptoms, including a side-case of “Beaver Fever”. Over the next few days, I’ll highlight some additional images made during this trip … several species of ducks and a hunting hawk. Until then, I’m heading back out to the water for some more action!
