Once again, I am now able to kayak with a local population of American Beavers (Castor canadensis). After having no luck at photographing the beavers at my favorite kayak area on Friday, yesterday morning I launched Rubber Ducky in the other area where I have had good luck in being with the oversized rodents. This time, I had success! It didn’t take long after I kayaked near the lodge, when one of the little guys saw me and announced my arrival with a loud tail-slap on the water! I maneuvered the kayak into an area that appeared to be their route to/from the lodge. Watching and photographing for ~2 hours, I counted at least 3 beavers that were residing in this lodge. And one of the larger beavers was seen taking green plant material back to the lodge … looks like someone is building a nest!
Here are a couple of images I made yesterday morning. The first image was made as the sun was rising over the horizon and tried to pierce the dense fog that had settled in over the water:
This next image has “Fun Friday” written all over it, but I’ll go ahead and share it. As this larger beaver swam around the area I was parked, he seemingly swam behind a gnawed-off plant stem and stopped, as if hiding from me behind the stem:
Except for the initial tail-slap, the beavers seemed to be quite comfortable with me around them … maybe they remember me from last year! Looking forward to kayaking with them on a regular basis again this year :o)
