The Beaver!

Today for the very first time, we saw the beaver.

In five months of walking at Beaver Creek Lake, there was no sign of him/her, except a few months ago, seeing the sapling birches cut off at the knee.

Don't know if there is just one. This one didn't look too happy - not that beavers look happy normally - but maybe they do. He/she didn't seem to travel any faster because we were walking by, just seemed steady on its course to the Peakway bridge, on the other side of which is its nest.

On the other side of the lake, we met a man with his rescued golden retriever. I mentioned we'd seen the beaver, and he sounded concerned. "I don't think he'll be able to do much damage now that the birches have wire around their trunks."

It's a sad feeling to imagine this little wild creature surrounded by roads and houses, trying to survive. Almost wish it could be removed safely and taken out to Jordan lake, but certainly not killed.

Tonight, on the exit ramp at 64 West, just after Laura Duncan Road, a young deer lay by the roadside. There still are deer in this now all to urbanized area, and they still are dying on the roads. Wish there was a way to handle this without so much harm to the wildlife whose land this was, in some cases only just months ago.