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The continuing battle between the municipality and beavers continues, with the destruction of the beavers’ dam for the umpteenth time, and yet another different barrier installed to try and prevent them blocking the culverts that direct a creek under a road. This scenario has happened thousands of times across North America, with the solution for the last hundred years or so being the killing of tens of thousands of beavers. Public opinion against such killings has resulted in other more humane methods being tested. Unfortunately, it is a catch-22 situation. The ponds and wetlands resulting from beaver dams are a treasure for many other species, yet anywhere near urban areas they are flooding nuisance and danger to roads, and are not welcome on farmers' lands. As we all know, any battle between human urbanization and wildlife always results in wildlife losing. Just look at the homes and cities you live in for proof of that.
This local beaver pond is habited by fish, frogs, mink, otters, as well as being an ideal nesting and feeding site for many different birds. As I watched these two beavers yesterday, I could almost sense that they must have been stressed and confused as to what happened to their dam and the task they face to try and rebuild it. The level of their pond has dropped by about two feet. During the hour or so that I watched the pond, one adult river otter came up-creek through one of the two smaller culverts and into the pond, no doubt in search of fish and frogs to eat. Maybe ten or fifteen later I could hear the shrill chirping that a river otter pup makes when it has been separated from its family. Instead of passing through a culvert, it came up the bank and cautiously crossed over the road and into the pond, not more than ten feet from where I was standing. When I was at home about an hour later, I saw the pup in our community pond as it went all the way up one side of the pond, turned around and went back along the other side, chirping loudly all the way still trying to locate the adult that I saw earlier. They usually reconnect, although it may take several hours or a few days.
Back at our community pond we had a lone teal, not sure if this is a green-winged teal. During the fall migration now happening, it is not unusual for some individual birds to get separated from their flocks due to weather or physical condition of the bird. We also have a single white-fronted goose hanging out with Canada Geese and cackling geese. And we also have a single snow goose in with the Canada Geese.
The pied-billed grebe has been around for about a week. In image #8 the grebe is about to submerge similar to how a submarine submerges. From Audubon: Picture a Pied-billed Grebe, dressed in brown, about a foot long, floating like a cork among lily pads. Suddenly the grebe begins to sink, inch by inch, like a submarine—until it disappears! Thirty seconds later, it reappears, just its head above the water, peering left and right.
When ducks dive under the water, they must leap forward and stroke powerfully with their feet to overcome their inherent buoyancy. The grebe, however, is the master of its own buoyancy. It can squeeze out the air trapped in its feathers and internal air-sacs, and sink effortlessly. As a consequence, grebes swim under water more easily than ducks, which must work hard to keep from popping back up to the surface. ...Show more →
On the other hand, the American Coot makes an arch as it gains more speed to dive head-first to get down far enough to reach underwater vegetation.
Excuse the long-winded text, but it may add helpful context to these images.
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