The high water on the Connecticut River has subsided and so I decided to check on the beaver lodges and dams at the bottom of Salmon Cove/Salmon River. The river gauge level has dropped from 15.3 ft to something like 8 ft in the last two days. It is a nice day with light wind and a 60F temperature.
The adults made half-assed attempts at building new nests, but by the second year, they seemed to have all moved on. I guess that most of these Osprey are new to the area and I hope that some of them will be building nests.
The beaver lodges on the long swamp spit are somewhat unusual. I know where four of them lie, but given the size of this swamp, I suspect there might be double that. The unusual part is that the four lodges are, essentially, duplexes. Beaver are territorial, so there is usually a hundred yards or more between lodges. These, however, are in close pairs. The other oddity is that they have built dams, even though they are not on slowing water. Rather, they have built containment dams that capture high water and holds it, at least temporarily. Basically, they are building a swimming pool. The water difference is only six or eight inches. But the lodge in the corner of the cove has two dams - an inner and outer, with slightly higher water behind the inner dam.
 |
| Duplex lodge with the double dam |
About this time, as I am starting to head into the cove, the wind comes up. It is much stronger than the weather forecast. It doesn't take too long for me to decide to head back out as my only paddling options are to continue downwind and face a grueling return, unless the wind increase, in which case I face landing the canoe and walking back to fetch my car. If this was a walkable shoreline, I would just wade it and tow the canoe, but it is not.
When I get back to the turn in the cove, I can see my put-in, about a half mile away. It's gonna take a half hour to get there.
The beaver lodge on the east shoreline appears to be abandoned.
No comments:
Post a Comment