beaver slap – Bloomfield Creek Covered Bridge
On a recent weekend tour of four covered bridges in southern Kings County in New Brunswick, we stopped at Bloomfield Creek. Built in 1917, this bridge is busy and well-used. It crosses a broad creek, very pond-like with its growth of lily pads (the yellow pond-lily Nuphar) and pickerel weed (Pontederia).
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Along the grassy banks of the creek is a beaver lodge.
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beaver lodge on the bank of the creek – the beaver has dragged lots of extra branches to keep near the underwater opening of his home
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A large beaver kept us company while we visited the bridge. He swam back and forth along the river, in a course we were certain was designed to confuse and hide the location of his lodge. Most of the time he stayed on the surface – so soothing to watch his smooth brown body ‘towing’ a ‘V’ across the water. Every few minutes he would pause in his swim, arch his body, scissor his tail and lift it perpendicular to the water surface. Then he would slap the water and produce a loud ‘k-thud’ before he dove beneath the surface. In a minute or so, he would reappear to swim as calmly as before.
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close-up of the beaver towing the ‘V’
big splash as the beaver slaps its tail on the water
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 
That’s a good slap! I can only imagine the beaver being so exuberant in this wonderful area.
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Watching Seasons
July 28, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Hi. We tried to make it slap at first, but it became obvious it was his general pattern to whack the water every few minutes, whether we were there or not. Jane
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jane tims
July 28, 2015 at 1:14 pm