Beaver Run, in Winter

Beaver Run is the little stream that runs through the hollow south of Hawksbill Cabin.  It's part of the view from our brick terrace, although during the summer when the leaves are up we can't really see it.

Looking at the changing view in that patch of the hollow is one of my favorite past times here.  This morning when Tess and I went for a walk we stopped to take it in.

Several times over the years, we've had a family of beavers come in and make a dam.  The structure usually lasts a year or two, staying in place for a season after the family has grown up and moved on.  Finally a spring ran will come in and wash it out, which happened in 2016.


I was looking through some old photos on my phone, and as it happened, I had this old one from fall 2014.  It gives a sense of how the view can change, with the leaves freshly down and the dark greens of summer lingering on the evergreens.

The mountains visible in the background include part of Shenandoah National Park and Tanners Ridge, a development of summer cabins. When the leaves are down, sometimes I can see little firepits going up there - and I wonder if they can see mine.

That's all part of this.  I'll take it as a break from the everyday.

Beaver Run in the Fall

The beaver pond across the road is going on two years old this time.  It's the second time these industrious critters have built over there - the previous time was in 2008 or so, and that one lasted about a year.

I thought the heavy rains might take it down over the last few weeks, but it survived.  Dan told me there was a breach, and I could tell from the water levels that it is much lower than it has been for most of the year, although the foliage has kept it hidden until now.


They seem to have settled on having the dam height a little lower in the past, so it doesn't quite cover the whole lot over there.

Still, it's pleasant enough to look at - the water sparkles through the trees year round, and sometimes I can see the wake of one of the beavers swimming around on patrol.

Beaver Pond Check-in

Last Saturday, after everything was said and done, Chris and I took a walk down to the road and then out into the lots across the way to check out the beaver pond.  The surface was frozen, and the areas where the water spills through the dam were full of icicles - it was quite a pretty scene.

I'm pretty sure there's a full acre of surface area now.  It's the largest I've seen it since we started coming here in 2007; this is the third time they've had a dam in this spot.

We were able to get very close while staying dry.  The dam is probably 7 to 8 feet tall in the area where it bridges the main stream - so there's a lot of water back in there - and it's deep!

As I'm writing this, Sunday afternoon, we've had some warm temps and the ice has thawed off of half the surface.  One of the beavers is out swimming around, I can just see the wake reflected in the golden light of the late afternoon.

You may just be able to make out the lodge, which is actually quite large, over to the left between the white "no hunting" sign and the tree that is just on the bank.  It's about four feet tall, and covered with brightly colored branches that have had all the bark stripped off.

Quite the view.  I'm getting my money's worth with that one.

Our Icy Beaver Pond

Last weekend we arrived Friday night after dark.  It had been a week of temperatures below freezing, so when I got up on Saturday morning to take Tessie out, I was greeted by a view of the beaver pond over in the hollow - frozen solid.  I snapped a nice Instagram photo here later in the day.

I had a good chat with Brian (of Breakfast at Epiphany's fame - check the blog list to the right!) about the frozen pond.  He asked if we skated on it, but since I grew up in Florida, that was never a skill I picked up.  Mary may know how, but she's never let on, so the answer was no.

I have no doubt it would be safe on many mornings, but by the end of the weekend, the temps were holding in the 40's and the ice was starting to melt.  There were clear patches near the dam, and especially further back where the streams come into the pond.

I took a second photo on Monday afternoon.  The grass in the fens along the front of the dam is doing well with the little sunshine it is getting, and the lodge is barely visible as a bright spot right at left center of this photo - there are some rather large branches piled on it.

This is my first post of the year - that is the longest I've gone without a post since I started the blog in 2007.  I picked up a lot of extracurricular activities this winter; they will give me plenty to write about, but I won't be able to post as often.  I'll set a goal of trying to be sure and make 100 posts during 2015 - I love the writing discipline and exercise of this blog, and I hope my readers will stay with me.

Happy 2015!

The Beaver Dam in Snow

Last month I wrote a post about the beaver dam across the road from Hawksbill Cabin, since it had come into view after the leaves fell.  When-ever there is snow on the ground up there, we have a good view of it from the yard - we can easily see how big it is...how it really fills up the hollow.  It actually covers an acre or two, between Beaver Run itself and a small tributary that merges in from the right side.

Then on Sunday morning, as Tessie and I were taking our little walk around the property and up the road, I happened to look out and see the beaver out and about, making his rounds in the pond.  The main portion of the stream goes off to the left in this photo, and back in there is where the beavers typically build their lodge.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article about beaver dams, should you wish to read more about them.

The Beaver Dam in Fall

In a September post I wrote about the ephemeral beaver pond that shows up in the hollow across the road from Hawksbill Cabin. At the time the area was covered over with wild greenery, but through the verge you could just make out that something had happened to the dam and the pond behind was empty.

Fast forward to last weekend, and now that the leaves are down and some of the plants have died back, you can see that the critters repaired their dam, and the pond has filled back up.  The pond is not as big as it has been at other times, but it's nice to see in any case.

For comparison purposes, the second photo with today's post was taken last spring, before the leaves came up.  The pond was much bigger at the time, probably full from the spring rains.

Mary and I took a look over there on Saturday afternoon, finding the pond partly frozen over.  Then we saw the wake of one of the beavers swimming around, and eventually the animal came into view.  Good to see them still around.

This stream is called Beaver Run - the hollow across the road isn't on our property, but it's part of the view from the brick terrace, so we enjoy having a look at it for most of the year.  When the dam is there, we have the benefit of the constant sound of running water tumbling through.

I'll keep an eye out for the opportunity to take some photos later in the winter, when it is frozen over.





 

Beaver Pond No More

Back in the spring Mary and I were happy to see that a new beaver pond was filling up over in the hollow across the road.  I put up a couple of posts, including this one where I walked down to the edge and snapped a short video:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-golden-beaver-pond.html

The first pond that appeared over there, back in 2008 or so, lasted over the winter, so we could have ice skated on it.  This time, no such luck - the pond started draining in early July.  It's empty now, with the bare mud showing through and the beginnings of a robust little meadow in its place.

I figure that the dam was damaged in a flood, or the beavers that were there simply abandoned this location for some reason.  I did see one or both of them swimming around late in the afternoons.  There was also a wide variety of water fowl coming and going from the pond - ducks, geese, and herons.

There is another pond a little ways upstream from here - that one is more or less a permanent fixture and is visible on Google Earth satellite photography of the hollow.  We've walked back into that deep part of the hollow before some winters.

For now we'll watch and wait until the next time they try to build there.

Beaver Pond - May Update

We've had a couple of drenching storms lately, most recently last Friday, so I was curious to see how the beaver dam held up.  To be honest, my concern is really about the road in front of our place - that little hollow over there fills up on the big rains, and if the dam fails then we'll have all the water and debris moving out, maybe causing a wash out.

I shared my worries with neighbor Dan on the email, but he was traveling and couldn't get out there to check for us.  He reassured me though: "Beavers are good at what they do!"

Sure enough, when we got in, Mary and I walked over to check and see how the dam held up.  It's still there, and the pond is even larger than before.  Plus, the stream has widened out after being scoured from the overflows during the rain.

A closer look confirmed that the hollow had filled up - all of the scrub plants along the stream were coated with silt.  So the water had gotten quite deep, possibly even inundating the dam, before it slowly drained off during the next day.

I'm just glad we weren't there to see it.  Hawksbill Cabin is on high ground, well uphill from this stream.  Still, it is a scary thing to see the water rise!

On golden beaver pond

It was a busy weekend around Hawksbill Cabin - between the "Tour of Page County" bicycle races, the adventure race, events at Wisteria Vineyard, and even a brewers association meeting, there was plenty to do.  I've got a few posts to catch up with, but first thing I thought I might share this video I took of the new beaver pond that has appeared across the street from us.

The narration may be hard to hear at times, and the videos is a little blurry, but here's two minutes of a tour from the road.

The Return of the Beavers

 When we arrived at Hawksbill Cabin on Saturday morning, we were surprised to look out into Beaver Run hollow and see that the beavers had returned from upstream, building a little dam in our stretch of the creek.  I remembered from a few years ago that we had a pond, and was very excited by the new development - and also worried, as always, since they are construction within 100 feet or so of our little road.  

After we got unpacked and settled in, we all took a walk over for a closer look.  As the plants are all greening up in the hollow, you can still get around pretty well in there, and I was able to get pretty close to it.  

It's not yet as big or robust as the one they built in 2008, but it is coming along. At that time, the stream was narrower and had some pretty high banks, so when the pond filled the water was as deep as six feet or so in places - it probably is this time as well, especially in the stream channels.

We kept an eye on the pond all weekend, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beavers at work, but no such luck.  I'm sure we'll see them eventually, but for the moment, all we've seen is a couple of pairs of ducks.

Looking back on my old blog posts, I found that the old dam was built in the spring of 2008 and lasted until heavy rains in spring 2009.  I used the label "beaver dam" to track the dam back then - I'll re-inaugurate that label again for posts about the new dam, starting with this one.

Relocating the Beaver

Back in 2008 and 2009, Mary and I watched as a pair of beavers built a dam in the hollow across the road from us at this confluence in Beaver Run.  The pond filled the area and reached depths of ten feet, and the stream was diverted creating new cascades that serenaded us with the sound of falling water that whole summer; at dusk we could here the animals splashing around at play. 

From time to time you could see mallards, Canada geese, and swans in the water, and I once saw a bear getting a drink over there. 

In the fall and winter, the pond froze over.  One of the best parts was the reflection of the sky and mountains that filled the view.  Eventually a spring storm (or VDOT, since the dam was very close to a state road) tore the dam down - exposing the whole infrastructure for analysis and learning, which you can follow if you like by clicking on the "beaver dam" label below.   

On Sunday, Sally and Dan invited us over for a walk through the woods around their place.  From the patio, you could see the familar reflection of a growing beaver pond back there - and as we went down the hillside to the hollow, sure enough, gnawed saplings was a sign of the beavers at work.

Closer to the pond, there are more of these stumps - some of them quite large.

The hollow opens up back here - it's maybe 400 feet to the south of where the old pond was and around a bend in the woods.  The dam itself is about 80 feet across and the pond extends behind it at least that far. 

It was partially frozen over, so Latte, the black lab with us, went out to explore, bounding from ice floe to floe and skipping through the shallow water tracking whatever scent came to him.  He was a happy dog and fun to watch.

Here's a last view looking across the pond to the little lodge, there on the other side of the water in the center of this view.  Some of the trees here will die after being water logged - or because of damage from the beavers trying to take them down. 

Come spring, the thaws and rains will probably wash this structure away. 

Beaver Run Story

Since the beaver dam fell - I posted on this a few weeks back, our little stream that runs across the lot still fascinates. I thought I would write a quick post on how Beaver Run changes with the weather, as I kept an eye on it for a few days while there was snow on the ground.

This snow fell about a week earlier, but obviously the weather had stayed cold enough that the stream was frozen over and still in its banks. On Christmas night a rain storm moved in, dropping about an inch of rain overnight. I could hear the sound of the stream filling and then rushing along over the little cascades down the hill.

I should mention that the weather reports said that there was the equivalent of an inch or more of rain already on the ground in the snow - the combination of cold weather and barometric pressure producing a ratio of about 15 inches of snow being equivalent to one inch of rain. So there was a lot of water that needed to clear out of the hollow and from the hills around us.

The stream rose and washed a lot of the snow off the banks. Down stream, at the Hawksbill Creek in Luray, the water was really high, and I will post on that tomorrow. Here, above the confluence our watershed, is smaller, but there is still plenty of ground to drain.

Finally, a look at the creek on Sunday, after the rain and after a lot of that drainage had gone downstream. The creek was still up and briskly flowing, enough so that the neighborhood still had the sound of small waterfalls in the background.

Not to get preachy on this, but that's a very pleasant and relaxing sound, if you haven't ever taken the time to sit still and enjoy it.

Beaver Dam No More

Before I took my country walk on Sunday morning, there were a few little chores that needed to be taken care of – the winter storms of the last two weeks or so had knocked down some branches, and the water flow had caused one of the corrugated black pipes to pull off of a down spout and roll down hill. While I was taking care of these little things, I was impressed with the low background roar of Beaver Run, which like the other streams in the area, was swollen from the night’s rain and the ongoing snow melt.

When I came around to the brick terrace at the front of the house, I saw that the beaver dam that we have enjoyed for the last year and a half has finally come down. A human may have helped this – in fact I am pretty sure that’s what happened – but I’ve been worried for a while that a good storm could cause problems down in the hollow since the dam was constructed so close to the road. I decided to go down into the hollow for a closer look.

From what’s left, it’s easy to see that the pond that formed here may have been as much as 8 feet deep in the areas where the main currents flowed. The dam was strongest at one area where a large fallen tree formed its base – this is the tree that looks like it was pulled out to break the dam. It’s interesting to look at the “cross section” view of the dam and see how much earth was part of the structure in addition to the branches and tree trunks.

The dam extends for more than thirty feet over into a wash area of the hollow. Even here, there is a ridge of dirt about a foot high topped with sticks and branches, ending with this evergreen that one of the beavers had worked on but stopped. In the background, there’s another tree that has come down, either from the weakening of the soil or because the beavers worked on it, or both.

Looking upstream, the beaver hut was near the large fallen log that lay across the main channel of the stream. I’ve seen pileated wood peckers working over this log on some mornings. The water backed up well up the stream, widening it pretty much as far as can be seen in this photograph.

I was worried that with so much of the dam gone, that a lot of the sticks and branches might have flowed down to block the culvert where it goes under the road – this was always my big worry, as that is where I figured a blockage could produce a wash out. Sally and Dan have told us about that happening before – they’ve had to park in a nearby neighborhood and hike in to their house.

Overall, I’m sorry to see the pond go. It was a nice view to have, looking down there and having Tanner’s Ridge reflected in the water. Then there was all the wildlife – the beavers, ducks, geese, deer, and even a bear once – that we could watch come and go. Late on Sunday, in the fading light of early winter’s dusk, I looked down and saw a blue heron stalking along the water’s edge – so the wildlife’s not gone, and the views aren’t. They’re just different now.

Beaver Pond behind the scenes

With the water receding out of the beaver pond, I had a chance to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes at one of these constructions. I was very impressed!

First of all, judging from the bare earth in this photo, there are places in the pond that may have been as deep as eight feet! For a little stream like Beaver Run, that is pretty impressive.

I’ve mentioned that we are seeing deer and squirrels walking around where the pond was. The deer have even broken their old paths back in, you can see where the grass has been knocked down and the little hoof prints. So we return to normal.

We saw one of the little beavers in our yard, on our side of the street the other day, and a larger one, an adult, around the bend in the road. And there are still ducks on what’s left of the pond.

In the photo above, there is a green clump of vegetation in the center of the shot, with a fallen tree nearby. In this final picture, we saw what we’ve suspected was there all along, but couldn’t confirm while the water was up – the underwater entryway into the beaver hutch.

When I was a kid, we had a book with a cutaway view of the hutch and entryway. I could spend hours looking at that picture, imaging what it was like to come and go through the little portal. Now we’ve finally seen it.

Beaver Dam Fails

Over the winter and throughout the spring we enjoyed our new water view across the road, as the beavers had set up a dam very close to us on Beaver Run. Apparently, with the pups all grown and after the rains we've had, the dam has broke, and much of the pond is drained.

In an earlier post, I wrote about all the wildlife we'd observed there, including the beavers, fish, ducks, geese and herons. There are still ducks and fish, although I didn't see much of the other animals last weekend.

The water has receded, but there are still areas where there is standing water in the deepest parts of the pool. Our little four-foot cascade that had serenaded us all that time is gone, the water no longer high enough to divert over it. Now there is a mucky black soil left in the areas that were formerly submerged.

Other wildlife is moving in: we saw a squirrel scampering around on the newly exposed earth, and as we were leaving Sunday night, a young deer was passing through there. It's a cycle, there will be plenty more to see, and hopefully this smaller pond will remain for a while.

Beaver Pond goin's on

On Sunday I spent a good amount of time on the brick terrace enjoying a sunny spring day. Besides catching up on my reading (reading list: back issues of Fortune Small Business, Wired, Harvard Business Review, Progressive Farmer and the Page News and Courier) I wanted to check out what was happening in the Beaver Pond across the road. I was too far away from the pond to capture images of all the action.

Since February, at night there is the constant song of tree frogs. Tons of them. Mostly the high pitched song, although there are some larger frogs around (likely ground-bound) with deep throated songs.

During the afternoon, I was able to see the beaver at work, making his/her rounds to ensure the dam was holding - it is. Also, there's a small flock of mallards that have taken up residence in the pond - only males so far, I haven't seen any females, but they may be nesting elsewhere.

There is a pair of geese in the neighborhood that fly by in the morning from upstream. I think they spend their days at the old pond downstream on the Jordan Hollow property, or over in the big pasture nearby, where there is a very large pond.

Finally, at times, I could see little wakes from fish swimming. I'm not sure what's in there - I heard that Hawksbill Creek was stocked in Luray last week, but I don't know if we've got "gone native" trout this far upstream. I'm sure that what we have here is not from the weekend's stocking...and I am thinking it's something less glamorous than the trout - probably a minnow of some kind, just getting close to the surface and showing a wake on smooth water.

On Frozen (Cement and Beaver) Ponds

This weekend we had our first look at the cabin in actual winter weather...a light dusting of snow remained on the ground from earlier in the week when we arrived on Saturday. One of the first things we noticed, looking across the property to the beaver pond across the street, was that it was hard frozen over - here's a photo.

The shiny ice clearly shows how big this pond has become, I'm guessing it is now a half acre. There doesn't seem to be a lot more room it can grow based on the size of the dam - I guess the critters are satisfied with their project.

Closer to the house, the water that rests on top of the pool cover was also frozen, and a little snow cover had fallen on it and around the pool. As I looked down there I noticed all sorts of tracks in the snow and ice, so I went down for a closer look. I can't decide if we'd had one visitor or many, but it looks like a little pool party took place from all these foot prints.

I was finally able to locate this isolated and fairly clear set of prints, and from this was able to decide we'd had some bunnies up there (and I confirmed this with a consultation with Howard at Evergreen Outfitters). They - or it - came in from under the fence near the gate, and hopped right over to the pool.

The days over the weekend warmed up quite a bit so the traces of winter melted off quickly - I wasn't able to get a bigger shot of the house to complete my "four seasons" collection of photos.

Walnuts and the Beaver Dam

Saturday was a very rainy day, and when the weather finally broke, we could see that the little beaver pond across the road had grown. It is quite a little water feature over there - it has spread to cover much of the hollow along some of the branches of the stream.

Some neighbors tell me that beaver dams come and go back there, but this is the closest to the road that we've had. Inevitably, we get a tropical storm one summer that washes the dam out, and all the debris blocks the culvert. Then the stream runs out of its banks and washes the road out...at least, they say, the state is quick to get in there and fix it, never more than four or five days, anyway.

When Mary and I took a walk down there to take a look at the pond, we noticed these walnuts on the road. There are actually a half dozen trees around the neighborhood. These nuts are lying all over the place.