An Unexpected Chore

This month, a new and unexpected chore presented itself.

A very industrious little landscape engineer decided to build a dam in a drainage ditch on my property. I caught sight of him shortly after dawn one morning. It was a medium sized beaver, perhaps a kit from last year. When it saw me motoring along in my Kabota, it scurried up the bank of the ditch and into the woodlot.

Visions filled my head of a sparkling new pond with water lilies, dragonflies and fish. Perhaps even a refreshing swimming hole. But alas, 'twas not to be.

In a more remote location, the ambitious little fellow might have stood a chance. But this is prime agricultural land and crop loss to flooded fields is not tolerated by the municipality. Someone upstream must have complained and the poor fellow was soon dispatched by a licensed trapper hired by the City of Ottawa.

Since the dam is on my property, the responsibility falls to me to remove the structure. It is heavy, muddy work but I rather enjoy wading around in the stream and reverse engineering the build. The Spring air beside our bush lot smells wonderful with the spicy scent of opening leaves and buds. And the peaceful sound of water trickling over the dam is music to my ears. Also, seeing how the dam was constructed was fascinating. The skill of these little animals is quite remarkable! 

The dam when first discovered.

First nip taken out of the side.

Hours of work in, more hours to go.

  

To sprinkle a little humour after the sad opening, I'll tell you about an exchange I had with a neighbour.

She is about my age and has the good discipline to take a long and brisk walk each morning. If I'm out when she goes by, she always stops for a friendly natter.

A couple of weeks ago, she was returning from her hike and dropped in to my place with a concerned and worried look.

She said it looked like someone was setting animal traps near my property just north of the house.

So we walked back to where she saw them.

"They are red coloured and I just happened to look down in the ditch and spotted them," she said.

"It looks like one may have been tripped but the other one I saw might be still active! I thought you should be aware of them!"

So she took me to the area which had alarmed her. North of the house and in the grassy ditch beside the road. After a bit of searching, she found them.

In the long grass and separated by about thirty feet, they did look like some weird and vicious leg hold traps.

With a stick, I fetched them out.

"You know," I said.

"I think they might be for putting under car tires that need traction on ice."

"Well they sure looked like traps to me," she said.

We had a good laugh at the mistaken identity. She said she didn't want them so I took them home in case I might need them some winter.

They certainly did look vicious ...

... but laid flat, not so much!

   

Spring Beauties with a wee passenger.

Wild violets in our woodlot.

A fluffed hummer on a cool morning.

A male kestrel scanning for mice.

Also scanning me and my camera.

A male Pileated Woodpecker.

Quite a handsome fellow.

Two of the many Wild Turkeys on this property.

Most days, I spot this doe going about her business.

This guy was having a big stretch just as I took his picture.

A brief look around before returning to grubbing.