A Beaver is Back
The water levels in the Farm Pond have been consistently low for
months now. There has been no overflow from Upper Pond into the Farm
Pond through the pipe since last spring. Out of the blue a beaver
appeared, about three weeks ago. His (?) first action was to plug up
the pipe with mud and waterlily debris at both ends. Then he began
construction on a new lodge in the southeast corner of the pond,
adjacent to the lodge built years ago when water levels were high.
This old disintegrated lodge is now exposed. The new lodge is out in
the water, with fresh greenery decorating the top.

Last week I went out to Upper Pond Dam to make some observations for
these notes and find out what the two alligators were up to. Across
the pond near the Farm Pond Dam was some activity in the water, then a
long series of bubbles in a straight line rose to the surface. A
large, broad-backed furry animal appeared, bobbed at the surface and
straightened out?it was a beaver. He dove, then the row of bubbles
appeared, and there he was again. He swam back and forth about forty
feet each way and then did not reappear. Right where he submerged the
final time there was a pile of cut branches up against the bank where
five or more former beaver homes have been exposed. We now assume he
may have started to establish another residence in the dam.

This seems strange behavior, given a beaver's usual predilection to
move in and build things and dam things when water is flowing, which
it clearly is not. There may even be a third home under construction
in the Upper Pond?there is more and more evidence of beaver traffic up
and down the bare sides of that dam.

Maybe there is more than one beaver present. Maybe he or she or they
are very young and biologically motivated to do all this even without
the water. Maybe there just isn?t enough water anywhere and this is
the best they can do. Does anyone have any theories?

Burning
We just finished burning the Gin House Field and Lewis Field in
three stages. In spite of several freezes, lack of rain, and breezy,
open conditions these fields were still somewhat green. Our
prescription is to burn after a freeze so that our grassy fuel is dead
and therefore dry, yet before the crimson clover germinates, which it
tends to do in the late fall and early winter. Last year conditions
were so excessively dry it was not safe to burn early and we had to
finally go ahead and burn late in December and then finish in January.
This year the vegetation in the Gin House was stunted from the
drought. The Agalinis barely made a showing, winged sumac was stunted
and did not bloom, and the bahia grass itself grew only half as tall.
So our fuel load was much lower than usual.

Each of the three burns required a lot of patience to develop a
decent black line since we were burning through nearly green grass
against the wind, and each day it clouded up and the humidity rose
significantly halfway through. It was so different from last year?s
intensely dry burning conditions. So the work got done, which is great
for the clover, and the fire was gentle enough to leave plenty of dry
broomsedge stems for winter cover for wildlife.

We will start our winter burning by harrowing the perimeter fire lane
in January. We always wait as long as we can, to prevent any potential
erosion should a hard rain fall after the earth is exposed. Then we?ll
start burning section by section depending on prescription. It will be
interesting to see what the weather will bring.

Other Unusual Sightings
Chris has been a busy Naturalist lately. She was out past the
Farm Pond on a brief Crotalaria-yanking expedition and was pulling
away among the pine trees and realized she was looking at a gentian.
This is a plant we have found in abundance along the edge of Gentian
Slough where it is wet, but never before on a dry upland slope. A week
later, pulling more Crotalaria in a different spot, she found another
gentian. Gil Nelson is working on its identification. What a nice
surprise!

Two weeks ago at the Farm Pond, Chris saw a nearly mature Bald Eagle
fly up from the Upper Pond bank and perch for quite a while on a pine
branch. A week later, visitors saw it flying over the Lewis Field, and
a few days later it was spotted soaring high over the Gin House. It
was probably migrating at a leisurely pace. It is always such a treat
to see these sizeable, elegant birds.

Today we are getting ready for the Winter Solstice,both the
celebration scheduled for tomorrow night, and the celestial event
itself. After weeks and weeks of no rain, it appears that tomorrow
will be the day for showers and thunderstorms, starting around 4pm,
of course. We really look forward to this unique event, and a lot of
people go to great lengths to make it special. As difficult as it may
be to cancel (if it comes to that), there?s nothing we?d rather cancel
for: a good thunderstorm. Rain. It will be very welcome.

On this note of uncertainty, in an uncertain time, we hope that the
turn of the Wheel of the Universe brings you great happiness in the
coming year. It would be our pleasure to see you, here at Birdsong,
sometime during this next ride around the sun. Best wishes.
-KDB

 

Bird Notes
During November most of the bird activity has been around the office,
gardens and out on the property, basically everywhere but the Bird
Window. Despite the drought, most of the trees and bushes have
produced a good crop of nuts and berries and the birds have been busy
taking advantage of this bounty. Our year round residents and a few
migrants sporadically stop by the Window for a bath and to grab a few
seeds or a bite of suet. The first flock of Robins this fall brought
with them a rather unusual bird?a Robin with a large number of white
feathers all over its body. This partial albino still had a ?red
breast? and plenty of dark feathers, but it looked a little like
someone had sprinkled it with white paint.

The second week of December brought remarkable increase in bird
activity at the Bird Window. We are now recording an average of twenty
species each day as compared to the average of eight per day noted in
the previous four weeks.

New arrivals include Red-winged Blackbirds; Eastern Phoebe; Catbird;
Robins; Cedar Waxwings; Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned,
Black-and-white, and Pine Warblers; Chipping and White-throated
Sparrows; Ruby-crowned Kinglets; Common Yellowthroat; Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker; Yellow-shafted Flicker; Blue-headed, White-eyed,
Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos; Hermit and Swainsons Thrush and
Veery.

All over the property we are seeing mixed flocks of Sparrows,
Kinglets, Warblers, Goldfinches, Chickadees and Titmice. There are
also small flocks of Bluebirds and Eastern Meadowlarks. Most days we
spot at least one bird of prey: Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk,
Kestral or Northern Harrier. There have also been sporadic sightings
of Osprey and Bald Eagle by the Farm Pond and Gin House Field. All of
our Woodpeckers have been actively working on nesting holes in many of
the snags, perhaps to make a warm place to roost during the cold
nights or to get a head start on creating a nest large enough to raise
their young next spring. Depending on where you walk you can hear the
calls of the Red-bellied, Red-headed or Pileated Woodpeckers. If you
are lucky you might also hear or catch a glimpse of a Yellow-shafted
Flicker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker or a Downy Woodpecker.

With unseasonably warm weather for the first two weeks of December we
are still seeing a lot of dragonflies patrolling the field near the
barn and dozens of Cloudless Sulfur, Sleepy Orange, Buckeye and Long
Tailed Skipper and Buckeye Butterflies in the Butterfly Garden and
around the house. All the new plants in the Butterfly Garden are
blooming andthis draws the butterflies. Just this week two very late Zebra
Longwings were spotted in the garden and on the few blooms left on the
Lantana near the office. We are enjoying these "winged wonders"while
we can. A hard freeze is due in the near future and with no flowers to
provide nectar the butterfly population will dwindle. It will be
Spring before we see large numbers of butterflies again.
-Chris Bittle