Saturday's Critters

I'm still having trouble with embedding video. Sorry. 

The birds have been amazing. A lot of them have flown south. I went into the wetland, I was surrounded by twitters. There must be a couple dozen robins hanging about. 

The finch, blue jays, cardinals, have been lovely to see. I think this is a red or purple finch.

A Cedar Waxwing, it's kind of a jiggly video, but listen for the bird song! 

This is the cedar corridor. They say to put trailcams on transportation routes. We have a couple of bucks wandering. Rutting season has begun.

Saturday's Critters # 673 visit Eileen's critter page!

If a tree falls...

 Wetland walks have been lovely. We are in a warm spell. (For November!) I've recovered from our time change. The important thing is Cinnamon sings the songs of his peoples a bit later, with the predawn.

Brenda's tree has fallen. They were working on it. They are encumbered by the trees falling on one another on the edge of the wetland. Deeper in the water, the trees just fall. 

They've been gnawing branches off the big trees, and taking them to their food cache in the wetland.

There are lots of trees down. The good news is beavers have been in this wetland for ages, and the habitat can support them. Beavers don't grow as large as they used to in history. They are so vulnerable to habitat loss.  

Smithsonian: They can swim 10k /hour, but are vulnerable on land. They carry materials like mud for the lodge in their front legs, walking on hind legs. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes.
They mate for life, and kick the young 'uns out in two years. I think that is where Barry came from last year. 

Barry's work

The tree falls at 50 seconds in. You can see is the aftermath of the dead leaves falling. 

Change

🕰 Spring forward, fall back! For some of us. It is so crazy. 

 Canada's time zones are interesting complicated. Our son Jesse, in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been three hours behind us. I try to remember that, and not text too early! We often chat in the afternoons on the weekend. I'll have to remember that B.C. will be only 2 hours behind. 

Northwestern Ontario is splitting from
southern Ontario in terms of time zones.

CBC published an article on this. Not all are happy. OK, no one seems happy about it! Our Premier wants to have the same time zones as our iffy main trading partner. 

Our sunset was at 4:51 Monday. It doesn't bother Barry or Brenda. They are nocturnal, and on one video he was out there at 7 p.m. Barry and Brenda, out working. I think Barry was the first one here last year. Then Brenda showed up this year. No, I don't really know their gender! It's just that the males are usually the ones who leave 'home' and branch out. 😝

 I've been concentrating on the outdoor critters. Let's check in with the goldfish! They are doing well. They have two kinds of food, one is called Bug Bites, which floats. The biggest goldfish zooms up to the pellet, splashes me, or the floor, if I haven't yet closed the lid.

Out in the forest, the 5 sisters, now only 4, stand proudly. 🌳 If a tree falls in the forest..., you lose a sister. Now, another large branch has fallen from one of the trees. We're down to 4 ½. Such is life in a forest. 

 

The squirrels are active, they know change is on the way. 

Critter visitors

We kept busy yesterday. Much stress watching things south of our border. Some Canadians are not confident and realize things are never going back to the way they were. The election was a relief, however.

Yes, we looked forward to change...

CHANGE

 I really worked hard at figuring out Barry and Brenda's work. It was a big post yesterday, but helped me to wrap my mind around what they are doing. It is a privilege to watch and record these animals who have to tolerate us in their habitat. 

We've had glorious days. I took a walk to the frog pond, no frogs. I did spot a pair of Brown Creepers on the edge of the wetland. They are the wonderful harbingers of Spring. When I spot them, I know Spring has arrived. It is sad that they leave, but I know they will return.

The other adventure was when I checked the wood duck nest box. Sure enough, two mice friends! The first one took a flying leap out of the door when I opened it. I laughed.

🦫 It's been quite the adventure. And the Beavers aren't done. It's a long, cold winter! They'll create a food cache, and wake from time to time to eat, or so I've read! 

🦌  Things are hopping here. It's hunting season, and I heard some shooting just after dawn. That can one do? Keep calm and carry on. It is rutting season, where the bucks scrape a clear spot and urinate on it to spread their scent. This could be the culprit!

 

We had our COVID and Flu boosters on Tuesday. 

 The hospital has its poppy display up for Remembrance Day's Nov. 11th ceremony. This was a drive-by shooting, but you get the idea! 

The Christmas lights came on! More shooting as desk approached. That's when the critters are active.  

We had a titch of rain during the day. It made for a lovely sunset. It dumped rain just as we returned home from the pharmacy.

Having grabbed a photo of the sunset, I peered in the window, and Nutmeg was in position on her towel. 

🚁 After the excitement of the day, we sat and watched 

Air Ambulance ER

 (2015), having finished Emergency: Air Rescue (2020) all about Scotland's amazing helicopter service. 

Joe Brian made biscuits to go with our leftover chilli. 

🦫 Barry and Brenda Beaver – workin' it

The saga continues. Barry arrived last year, Sept. 2025, I saw some signs. By November he was building a lodge, and I spotted him in the water. He's grown some since.

He's worked two years building one lodge his first year, and a second this year. Oct. 28th, 2026, I found two beavers working in the dark on video. 

This was funny! Here are the dual trailcams.

Barry was working on the far tree, moved away through the crunchy leaves. 

Brenda gives him a look, "You done already?" 

You can hear Barry as he splashes into the pond. xxx

And I found three lodges.

The blue lines show where there is deeper water, wetland canals exist. The 'V' is where they have the lodges. The encircled area has been overgrown for years. Trees, little islands, cattails, surrounded by water. It is barely navigable when it freezes over.

Lately, I've noticed more work on the wetland canals. This is important for their protection. They escape into the water to escape predators. 

On the other side of the wetland inlet, you can see how they've built up the sides of the canal. 

We've lost many trees, but we have 16 acres. This is just one wee section of the yard. 

The tree on the left is Brenda's, Barry's been working on the oak for days.

They've worked on two birch trees.

We've been concerned. Then I realized what was happening. They are creating a transportation system. It protects them, but it provides a habitat for other critters. Frogs, insects, birds, snakes, salamanders, dragonflies, turtles, deer, coyotes, squirrels, chipmunks, snowshoe rabbits, all like the wild berries, and the safety of the wetland.

River otter

What I didn't count on was finding a river critter. A river otter. They are using Barry's canals! 

More Hallowe'en!

 Some of us can't get enough of Hallowe'en. Like most of my life, these days, I live vicariously through the kids.

Jean-Luc and Aster in Ottawa. JL was a character from this movie, which I'd never seen! Ben Stiller in Dodgeball in 2004. It's pretty darn good! Aster is totally unrecognizable!

I was so excited to be involved! When we visited Jordan at Queen's he showed us the guitar he was making for his Hallowe'en costume. He was making it from scratch. He pondered how to make the guitar strings. I had an idea. We thought they should be gray. I had some string. I dunked it in a can of garage floor paint that dated to the previous owners.  It was sort of gray! 

I thought it was so clever! But the entire thing fell off the toilet paper roll, and I had to straighten it to let it dry. Then mail it. 

Dried, straightened, wrapped around a piece of cardboard, Grampa mailed it off to Kingston.

Jordan designed and cut and pasted all the pieces, I think it was that plastic stuff campaign signs are made of. He made stickers for it, pegs and keys. Just amazing.

My fun has been in the forest. I moved the frog pond trailcam, as I spotted a worn path on the point. This leads to the wetland. Here it is in the daytime. 

It is a peninsula, that extends into the wetland. It is surrounded by water on 3 'sides' and the critters trod from little out cropping to outcropping. We had two roly poly Butch racoons and a Fisher.

There were three deer. I love the eyes in the dark!

And just for fun, the Barred Owl again!