Tag Archives: nature

Photo of the Week – March 22, 2012

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Beaver art?

Beaver "sculpture" at the end of a downed cottonwood's branch. Click on the photo for a larger, sharper image.

This week, I had some time to walk along the creek that runs through our Platte River Prairies.  As I was walking, I found this big cottonwood tree that had fallen over and subsequently had most of the bark stripped off its branches.  Clearly there were beavers at work.  I was particularly drawn to the end of one large branch that had been chewed in an odd way.  No, I don’t think it was done to be artistic, but I can’t actually come up with a logical scenario that explains it either.  Accidental art?

The two-foot diameter base of this cottonwood must have taken the beavers quite a while to work through.

The cottonwood tree was very large – over two feet in diameter.  A curious choice, since there were numerous smaller willow and cottonwood trees nearby.  On the one hand, they gained an awful lot of branches and bark from dropping one tree.  On the other hand, boy, what a job!

The beavers’ lodge was on the bank of the stream, right underneath the fallen tree.  I’d really like to know whether they built the lodge before or after they dropped the tree…

I'd love to know whether the lodge was initiated before or after the big tree was dropped. It ended up being right underneath the fallen tree.

Beavers are great engineers, of course, dramatically changing water courses and wetlands wherever they live.  Sometimes that ability brings them into conflict with humans.  We’ve been battling beavers at another of our sites where their dams are backing water over the roads that we and our neighbors rely on to get to our properties.  In that case, the engineering of the beavers has been less pleasant to observe – though no less impressive.  In the case of the “artistic” beavers in our Platte River Prairies, I’m happy to let them build and create at will.  In fact, I look forward to watching what they come up with next.

Photo of the Week – March 16, 2012

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Sandhill cranes have filled the Platte River valley.   They’re in nearly every field within 5 miles (or more) of the river.  Bird watching is pretty easy when you just have to pull over to the side of the road to see a few thousand cranes feeding, dancing, and calling to each other.  It’s a great experience, and widely accessible to anyone with a car and a few extra minutes to pull off the interstate and drive a few county roads.  Sometimes, as was the case this past weekend, there is even a big white crane mixed in with the sandhill cranes – just for a little extra excitement.

On the other hand, while seeing the birds in the fields is fantastic, it pales in comparison to the experience of sitting in a viewing blind on the edge of the river watching the cranes pour out of the sky into their river roost sites in the evening, or sneaking back into the same blind early the next morning to watch them wake up. 

Looking through windows cut in the burlap front of a crane viewing blind along the Central Platte River. The birds were just waking up in the early dawn and starting to get noisy when this photo was taken.

It’s tough to beat an early morning in the blind.  Arriving well before sunrise, it’s usually hard to tell how many birds are on the dark and nearly silent river.  Then, as the light slowly comes up, thousands of silhouettes appear on the water and start to shift around.  As the sun slowly rises, so does the volume of the crane cacophany.  On most mornings, the cranes stick around for an hour or more after the sun is fully up, providing plenty of time to watch and listen to them at close range.  Awesome.

If you’ve never had the experience, what’s stopping you?  You can make reservations through Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary or the Crane Trust Nature and Visitor Center.  While you’re in the area, stop by and hike one of the trails through our Platte River Prairies.