Saturday's Critters

 Before the polar vortex, the critters have been out. It's been a few frigid mornings. More on the way! The birds amuse me. We've three male and one female cardinal. About 6 mourning doves, and a flock of juncos, as well as chickadees and goldfinches. A couple of blue jays, as well.

The coyotes have been frequent flyers. They zip up and down the driveway, and go to see what Barry is up to.

   

 The deer have been quite quiet, for the most part. We have the odd visitor.

   

 Buster loved walks in the snow. As did Daisy. Nutmeg and Cinnamon don't last too long outside, and don't venture too far in the snow. It's like sending youn kids out in the snow, the exercise to get themselves into snowsuits took up a lot of recess time, and it was good exercise.

Daisy even loved the frozen frog pond.

Sound up! I've been trying to teach Cinnamon about the cat door in the garage at the back of the house. Bending over at the door, I was calling. He'd already figured out how and came roaring along the sidewalk, and around the back of the house to see me.

 

Barry Beaver is frozen in, as far as I can tell. For fun, I found a video of a beaver chewing on a small tree trunk. Apparently they hold on with upper teeth, and it's the lower jaw that does the grinding/chopping!

We're going to have to get someone in to take down the leaners. They scare me. Too bad Barry didn't finish the job. I found this video of a beaver. It shows how the beaver uses his top teeth as a lever, and it's the bottom teeth that do the job! 

More critters: Saturday's Critters # 625, hosted by Eileen. I am happy visiting her blog, as she has 'winter birds' that nested up here in winter. 

Busy Barry Beaver

🦫 Barry Beaver First spotted the felled trees in Sept! 

"I'm going down to visit Barry!" This is a new phrase for me. 

The path down to the wetland Barry has taken over is between the pine tree on the left and the shed. I stand and expect trees to fall in the distance!

I just wish Barry could help with this dead birch tree! It's been leaning since the hurricane a few years ago.

This is what I noticed in November... He's taken about 20 trees down, and left 2 or 3 widow makers. 

 

 I saw him (her?) in the pond after I snuck up carefully on the crunchy leaves.

   

 The coyote knows very well Barry is here. I captured video of it climbing the hill where the beaver uses the same path. It looks like it is a difficult uphill climb. I did it yesterday and I can verify that.

  

 The beaver's been up and down. I spliced two videos, as coyote is still checking the area out. The trailcam (actually the bird cam) scared him!

   

 Barry's going up and down quite frequently! Winter approaches... 

 

I have tried to map my find. It is tricky. 

We've lots of trees, 16 acres worth. We'll see what happens. 

Barry Beaver Builds

 We've been following our newest resident! I wouldn't have thought a beaver could survive in the wetland. It was bone dry in summer, and only recently has it filled with November rains. I've set two trailcams on it. I've heard rumours that they've been in Jebbs Creek nearby. A landowner busted its dam back in the day. 

It's left several trees unfinished. There are about 20 down, so far. We've 16 acres, and this is the deepest water on our property, but it isn't a pond. And it isn't deep. 

Not only the coyote, but the deer use this path. This is my birdcam, which isn't too bad. I placed it on a felled tree. There aren't many flat spots.

 

↙Can you see the trailcam on the post? I can't attach it to a tree. They might chop it down!

Realizing there must be a dam, I circled the wetland. 

The wetland has these little baby islands, with trees here and there. You can see the open water in the middle ground where Barry goes back and forth. 

It is an awesome critter!

It kept swimming back and forth, checking to see if I was dangerous. The zoom lens was great, but awkward. I didn't think I could manage a monopod or tripod. 

Not so bad!

I made myself  a map to remind me where the one dam sets. There is another, I think. I was hobbling carefully on my twisted ankle.  

I think it has dug into the mud under the lodge. I hope it gets done. Today, Nov. 27, it's snowing. And windy.

I caught it on land, where it is terribly vulnerable. We anticipate a polar vortex this weekend. It's going to freeze up. We'll see what happens. 

Crumbles on Crumbly Acres!

We'd had snow on Sunday. I slipped and twisted my ankle. It's good now, but I'm being careful. It was a shock, but there were leaves and snow involved. I fell off the paver in the garden, right under the camera. CUE LAUGHTER: 😝 🤪 !

I was quite proud of my dance, caught on video. 😣

It's flu season. We're trying to stay healthy. I'm glad ice seemed to work for my ankle. The hospitals are slammed, as usual. On Nov. 18th this came out:

On walkies (I trod carefully), I spotted a leaf sticking out of the nest box. Something must be in there! Maybe the other black squirrel.

The close up is out of focus, but I wanted to remind myself what it looked like.

It's still rutting season for the deer. We expect rain, then a polar vortex this weekend. Get out your woolies! 

This tractor was headed to do something! It pulled over to let cars and trucks pass, methinks.

We headed down to the meadow, then to the frog pond. This is looking up the path to the highway. 

The coyote had been along this path. Why run through the forest when you can run along the driveway and human paths?! 

The pond is filling nicely for winter protection for all the sleeping critters: frogs, salamander, bullfrog tadpoles, and all the insects who need winter protection.  Cinnamon roared towards, and up a tree. Happy boy! He's glad to get out and about with me.

 

It's melted some in the pond, in a strange pattern.

Down by the trailcam, this is the frog pond in its torpor.

From there I went up to the backyard to check on Barry Beaver. It is working beyond the shed in the wetland. Heading down the path, I noticed the coyote tracks. Barry best be careful!

Its been after another tree, which is hanging on. I've set up a couple of trailcams here. We'll see what I get, but I'm not hopeful.

It's down there, in maybe 2' deep water. I don't know how that will work over winter.

Guess who visited to check things out? My trailcams aren't great (aren't we all wearing out?), here is an older screen capture from a video of a coyote.

 

🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫 🏫

Jordan is having a grand time at Queen's University, studying astrophysics. He doesn't have any classes Fridays, but he writes: 

"Every Friday there are physics colloquiums (talk from professors from everywhere about cool stuff), and today there’s one about exoplanets! 🪐 "

Busy as a beaver

 I could believe it! I had to go to the shed, and spotted some more chopped down trees. This is why my chores take so long. I get distracted! 

I saw some signs in September, but action had stopped. The wetland was dry, and not suitable habitat. I thought it had moved on. You can see only frogbit in the bottom of the deepest part of the wetland.

The wetland has come back. Well, it has refilled! It was down there, slapped its tail and scared me. You could see where it had opened up the ice. Well, I could. The photo isn't great. 

I used to see them in Bala when we lived there from 2005 - 2010, but in much deeper water.

It is fascinating how hard they work. I'm going to have to move the trailcam from watching rutting bucks. I'd like another one, but can't seem to find one I like.

These are reminders for me, and show and tell for Joseph Brian! 

Perseverance:

This is a 'widow maker!' It didn't persevere.

I hope it survives, but it has to be in the wrong place. We've not much water, the wetland is only ever a couple feet deep. 

 

🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵 🪵

 We visited the Bala cramberry bog in 2010 or so, and found some beavers messing with the irrigation system! There were several beavers in this lodge. They were smashing their tails in a warning. Normally they go under the water and swim away. I was threatening their dam and two left, swimming away, these stayed put swimming back and forth.