26 May 03

Beavers in the Neighborhood

Last night I walked east out the levee road, just past the raptor center, when I looked across Putah Creek where I saw a critter just out of the water on the opposite bank. He got back to swimming in the creek, and I then saw his distinctive tail. The beavers were back.

beaver1.jpg
Maybe they never left. Pica and I first saw beavers in this stretch of Putah Creek on a late-afternoon walk last December 31st. I came back the following day with the scope and digicam and took some pictures, one of which is at left. But I didn’t see them after that evening. Still, it’s quite possible they’re the same beavers I saw last night.

I returned this evening to try to photograph them. No luck on the photography, but I did see one. It’s a treat having beavers a five-minute walk from our house, in the middle of the Central Valley!

Posted by at 08:20 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. I wonder whether the two of you have ever seen otters in your neighborhood. We saw a couple in the Delevan refuge about ten years ago: a treat, as the refuge staff had no record of otter sightings there for some time.

    — Chris Clarke    30. May 2003, 11:15    Link
  2. One of our neighbors thinks she saw three river otters in the creek near here recently. They’re definitely around—they’re frequently seen further up the creek in the Lake Solano area. And this was the first year they were seen in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area: five in total.

    The strangest report this year has been of a pair of otters in the North Davis ponds. These are ponds for storm runoff that have been made into a little wildlife refuge, and are surrounded by houses on three sides.

    — Numenius    30. May 2003, 17:46    Link

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