"BEAVER MUSINGS" - Beaver (North American)

July 23, 2024 • Leave a Comment

"BEAVER MUSINGS"

Beaver (North American) - 10 Photos

Muse Definitions:

Noun: A person or an imaginary being or a force who is a source of artistic inspiration.

Verb: To reflect about or marvel upon, usually in silence.

So beaver musings would be having beavers as a source of artistic inspiration (in this instance, photography) & reflecting about them & their extraordinary activities hopefully in silence. I am not opposed to having a quick chat with an occasional passerby or photographer but I much prefer the solitude & silence. Wildlife may tolerate our chatter but they don't like it & because things can change/happen so quickly within the natural world, you can miss out on a photo opportunity.

I guess to put it bluntly, when I am photographing wildlife, I am there to watch, observe & learn from Nature, not to engage in long conversations.

The following photos were taken approximately an hour to an hour & a half before sunset. The golden tinge was due to a setting sun & some intermittent clouds, producing a diffused lighting effect.

And, of course, it's just another day in the life of a beaver - some repair work, a quick bite to eat & a little time to hang out with family. And because of the high temperatures Alberta is currently experiencing, I was slightly envious of the fact that most of their activities were completed in or under the water. At one point, I was confused as to why one or two beavers were removing some very old branches from the end of the lodge & swimming back to the dam where repairs were being made and placing those branches there. Wasn't that, using an old English saying of "taking coals back to Newcastle". The woods are literally just a stone's throw away from the dam so why would a beaver remove branches that he/she had already transported across the pond back to where basically he/she had gathered them in the first place.

And then it dawned on me. The branches, although part of the lodge's bottom edge, were somewhat redundant. Being that it was so hot even later in the evening, the beavers probably did not want to expose themselves to the physical stress of walking through the woods, chopping down a suitable tree for the repair & hauling it back to the dam. It was much better to "recycle" unused material. We all know that even as people, everyday activities in temperatures excess of 30 degrees C, take much more effort & can easily cause exhaustion & dehydration and that's without having a thick furry coat to take into consideration.

There were, of course, some short expeditions into the woods to gather small branches with tender leaves (Photo #10), which were immediately brought back and taken under and into the lodge for the new family additions. You could hear the "mewing" through the lodge walls as food approaches, much like the excitement of baby birds as the parents bring in tasty meals. Then it's an "all quiet" for a few seconds before the sounds of chewing can be heard.

PHOTO #1