Posts Tagged ‘Beaver’
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
snippets of landscape – beaver lodges and beaver dams
Everywhere along streams in New Brunswick there are dams and lodges the beaver have built. The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is a clever engineer, building dams to create ponds as habitat. The still, deep water provides safety from predators and enables the beaver to float branches and logs to be used as building materials and food.
a beaver pond near our cabin ... notice the two ducks on the shore to the left...
Unfortunately, the subsequent flooding of roads and other land means the beaver’s talents are not always appreciated. However, beaver dams help create and maintain wetlands, important for providing habitat for other animals and storage areas for water.
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Bear Creek Meadow by Canoe
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from the river
we portage
across the beaverdam
over poles and patted mud
up
to the quiet pond
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and the bow
scoured by rocks
parts green
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and our paddles
pitted by snags
spoon soup
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dignity quiets our paddles
hushed voices heed
the diminishing echo
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pliant as stems of pickerel weed
we honour the whisper
of wild rice
the edgewise touching
of nymphaea and nuphar
amphibian eyes
in the harbour-notch of lily pads
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we are threaded by dragonflies
drawn by water striders
gathered in a cloak of water shield
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oval pads a puzzle
part in silence
return to their places
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no trace of our passing
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Published as ‘Bear Creek Meadow by Canoe’, Canadian Stories 14 (79), 2011.
© Jane Tims 2011
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