The ice is coming in, Beaver Family

The ice is starting to close in the beaver's pond and they seem to be ready for it. Their two lodges look sturdy and there are enough freshly cut tree trunks in the vicinity to indicate that they have stored plenty of food for the winter.

Their dam is finished and the ice should make it stronger. The dam has raised the water level about three feet.


If I could be any animal for 24 hours, I would want to be a beaver. Since I probably won't get my wish I will have to be satisfied with keeping an eye on them all winter. It will be fun to snowshoe out to their lodge in a month or so when the ice is thick.

The ice is already making some beautiful formations both in the dam and in the puddles along the path.

More on the Beavers

As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, the beavers are picking up the pace and working hard to build their pond before the ice closes the waterways.

Yesterday my mom and I headed down to the river at the back boundary of their property to see how things were coming along.

The little furry engineers have built a big dam which caused flooding upstream and created a really nice pond. I hope that the pond will be permanent and give us a nice swimming hole to enjoy next summer. The dam still has a lot of rushing water so I imagine the beavers instinct to stop the sound of the rushing water has them cutting and hauling and patching all night long.

We found two beaver lodges in the pond. One was well camouflaged, close to the dam and hard to photograph; the other was far upstream and built into a bank right at the end of the first beaver trail that I found a month ago. That made sense to me because the trail led to a large grove of young popple trees which the beavers must be hauling and storing for their winter food supply.

I just can't get enough of this beaver activity and am so happy to have them in an observable location. At night, I sometimes wake up and wonder what they are doing and try to imagine their busy little night-time world.