January and February, 2020
January 2020 Photos
Beaver Activity
Some branches are gone and a large branch is cut and leaning on the rock wall.
The beaver has worn a path down to the creek. Notice the small branches that have been left behind.
The beaver path leads to the creek. Claw marks in the mud show where the beaver climbs unto the bank.
Another beaver cut tree nearby.
There is lots of water. The beaver dams are all in good shape.
Near the beaver dam were parts of an animal. The teeth were about the size of beaver teeth. Did the coyotes get the beaver?
This photo shows the jaw near the beaver dam. I have added a photo that I found of nutria teeth. Unfortunately, the photo that I found is not very good. But it matches the jaw. Photos of beaver teeth did not match at all. So I found nutria jaw bones. Our beaver is alive and busy.
Moss and lichen are doing well.
February 2020 Photos
Planting Shrubs
This Great Blue Heron watched me intently, departing before I could get very near.
On February 7, four shrub planters were observed in our wetlands, dressed in waders and carrying side bags full of small shrubs. Using a narrow shovel they were planting baby shrubs.
Later, when I visited the wetlands I found skads of small shrubs almost everywhere behind our townhomes. I recognized Oregon Grape (above on the right). Previously, I have not found any Oregon grape. Another twig had a "Crataegus douglasii" label, a black hawthorn, a native plant.
Anne Kepner checked her contacts and discovered that this crew was from Clean Water Services and had planted 6,400 native plants in the wetlands.
Most of the plants were behind our townhomes but this strip of Oregon grape shown below was just inside the Claremont property line on the way to Kaiser Road.
Our beaver has been working like a beaver should, helping our wetlands change from horse and cattle land, back to a wild wetland.
March 2020 Photos
March 16. The Oregon ash that the beaver girdled blew over in a strange way. I expected it to break where the beaver had chewed. Instead, it split, starting where the beaver had worked on it. The top of the tree is now supported by small trees, leaving the tree up in the air.
March 5. The tree looked like this a couple weeks before. The beaver had not touched it for many months. Stale food.
I will watch to see what kind of tree this is. A few trees have started to blossom.
Some of the twigs that were recently planted are showing signs of life.
March 29. Spring is here. This is one of the small shrubs that was planted about 6 weeks ago. A native Oregon plant, it is the red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum).
The cattails are changing from hot dogs to bad hair days. These small seed have blown past me as I stand on my deck.
The willow trees are making pussy willows. These are male catkins that go from being covered with fine, gray hairs to dispersing pollen. The pollen is at the tip of a long hair called a stamen. The pollen sack (anther) is initially red! It then changes to yellow which is probably the color of the pollen. Later, it is black. The red color really surprised me.
This is a horsetail fern. At this time of year these ferns are sending up special shoots that are topped with spores. In the background, on the right, you can see the non-fertile shoot. There are two different forms of the same plant.
Garter snake is a common name for a generally harmless, small to medium-sized snake. This one was motionless below a deck.