Saturday, December 8, 2012

Bank Den Beaver

About a mile from my home there is an approximately 20 acre mostly abandoned gravel pit.  Gravel has been removed from the site for at least 75 years, ever expanding, and ever deepening.  In places it is at least 100’ deep where gravel was removed with a dragline.  In more recent years the gravel banks have largely petered out, and only occasionally are smaller amounts of gravel yet taken.
As I approached it a few days ago rafts of geese took wing from their sanctuary.  They settle in nearby harvested corn fields to reap the bounty of remaining ears of corn scattered on the ground.
I continued nearing the area where I knew beaver to have a den.  Situated near a beautiful small evergreen the den can be noted where the scattered limbs are on the surface of the hill.  The entrance is underwater, dug into the bank of the gravel pit.  It extends back in a moderate distance and then rises to above the water line.  Once inside they are snug, and reasonably safe from nearly all predators.  Beavers store a winter food supply which can be seen floating on the water.  It is merely small sections of tree trunks, or limbs, of which they will eat the bark from through the frozen winter months when access to fresh food is hard to get to.
These medium size poplar trees are the result of the beaver’s work of gathering that winter food supply.  Note the size of the chips on the ground where they have removed the wood necessary to fell the tree.
This dirt pathway leading down from the hill is their skid way where they drag the sections of tree down to the water’s edge from that small stand above.
This is an abandoned den from previous years.  All nearby trees had been felled, and as the food supply depleted they were forced to move on to greener pastures, or maybe that should be greener woodlands.

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