What Is Wrong With These People?

February 2^nd, 2013. A few weeks ago we went by eastern swamp on Enoch John Road in Wilkes County, Georgia.

This is what the swamp looked like in the summer of 2011. And a closer view of the…

American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) in bloom.

The treasure was a beaver lodge in the open pond just above the beaver dam.

A closer views…

It was sunny on Saturday and we went back to Wilkes County to check on another creek but drove by the swamps.  Road work had been done on the west swamp on Anderson Mill Creek to channel the water from the rain we had last week. mini-dam was gone but this didn’t affect the beaver lodge at the east end of the swamp.

The sight that confronted us when we drove down the hill on Satruday was shocking…

The swamp had been drained. The lodge was high and dry.

We walked along the ridge to the side of the swamp to get a better view of the lodge.

The western edge of the lodge was just above the water level of a channel through the swamp.

The back side of the dam at it’s highest point, and the…

area of water still behind the dam.

It didn’t take long to see where the dam had been breached…

The intact beaver dam near the road, photographed in December 2011, was intact when we saw it a few weeks ago, but now…

A section of the dam had been removed, leaving just a small streamlet draining through it. (the road is in the background).

A bulldozer had removed a section about six to seven feet long from the dam during the few days after the last rain judging by the freshness of the marks scoured into the side of the hole.

The destruection seems particularly wonton when the area has been in a relatively severe drought for a few years and the water impounded by this dam supports not only the beaver but other wildlife in the surrounding area. The dam was structurally sound and didn’t present any risk to the road just below it. Rather than destroying a large section of the dam down to its base, it would have made more sense to insert an overflow pipe into this section of the dam rather than destroy it completely. Hopefully, since this is prime real estate for beaver, they will repair the dam and return the swamp to its previous state.

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Identification Resources:

University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: American Beaver (Castor canadensis) 

Related posts:

- Beaver Lodge On Wilkes County Swamp

- Beaver Lodge On Anderson Mill CreekSwamp

Beaver Lodge On Anderson Mill Creek Swamp

We found the swamps on Enoch John Road in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 2011 and drive by them every time we’re in the county. On the day we took the most recent photos of the beaver lodge on the eastern swamp on Enoch John Road, we discovered another lodge on the western swamp on Anderson Mill Creek.

We always stop on the..

bridge over the creek – looking west to the bridge - and take photos looking to the…

south..

A closer view, and…

north…

A closer view.

We stopped on the eastern approach to the bridge to photograph a…

Clump of Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus) that had gone to seed.

We were wandering around and noticed something almost insignificant but not quite…

A mud dam stretching between two clumps of grass. This wasn’t there last time we drove along this road. The road grader had been through and opened up the vegetation along this stretch of road to allow water to drain from the upper swamp to the lower area.

This was a small dam. No doubt about it. The beaver in this area have built and extensive length of dam, more like a terrace, along the north side of the road to the west of the bridge. This small section was very similar.

So we started looking around and found, a little way to the north, another beaver lodge almost hidden. In this photo, it’s a gray mound just to the left of center behind the bushes. It’s there; you just have to know where to look.

There was no getting closer to it. Its in the swamp. The water is probably a couple of feet deep and the bottom mud is probably soft. We weren’t equipped and weren’t going to attempt to get closer. The only other option was to position the pickup in the best spot and climb up into the bed of the pickup and strain for a better view.

This was the best we could do but, clearly, it is a beaver lodge not more than approximately 30 feet north of the road.

Judging by how difficult it was to get a good view of the lodge now that the bushes have dropped their leaves, it would be impossible to see it in the Summer.

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Identification Resources:

University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: American Beaver (Castor canadensis)

Southeastern Flora: Bushy Bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus)

Related post:

- Beaver Lodge On Wilkes County Swamp

Beaver Lodge On Wilkes County Swamp

We found the swamps on Enoch John Road in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 2011 and drive by them every time we’re in the county. These photos were taken at the eastern swamp on a tributary to Fishing Creek.

In summer, you’d never suspect anything. The view across the water is blocked by a large stand of American Lotus (Nelumbo luteo). Beavers are in the area but you think that they’d have their lodges further up the swamp. But no…  In the Winter of 2011 we got a better look at the swamp.

The water is impounded by a dam that is at least six feet tall at its tallest point.

A closer view…

And still closer…

And from the side…

Still closer…

It appeared that the dam had been undergoing maintenance. There was evidence of some new timbers and signs that fresh mud had been applied to the top of the dam.

 

When we stopped by in mid-December, 2012, the dam has grassed over completely. All that is visible of the long, thick trunk that was clearly visible in 2011, is the exposed part above the dam that has weathered.

At first we didn’t see it, but then we spotted the beaver lodge.

A classic beaver lodge in the middle of the swamp.

 In December 2012, it’s still difficult to see the lodge from the road

The lodge has weathered and some of the big timers that were on the top right-hand side appear to be in the water in front of the lodge.

We climbed up an embankment to get a clearer view of the swamp.

Views of the lodge in the distance. In the summer, the lotus field would block this view.

Increasingly closer views from this vantage point. Dead lotus leaves are clearly visible in the water around the lodge.

The icing on the cake would be to catch a glimpse of the beaver swimming in the swamp.

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Identification Resources:

- University of Georgia Museum of Natural History: American Beaver (Castor canadensis)

Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center: Beaver Dam At Fox Lake – And Wood Ducks

November 18, 2011. As long as we’ve been visiting Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, there’s been a pond just below the dam at Fox Lake. We assumed it was a beaver pond but we’d never seen any sign of beaver activity. Then, on March 6th this year, we saw evidence that beaver had been at work, doing some dam maintenance. Last Saturday we noticed - now that the vegetation has died back for the year – that the beaver seem to have been at work again. The pond looks a little deeper than it did in March.

The beaver pond below the dam at Fox Lake. Looking southwest over the south end of the dam to the dam containing Fox Lake.

March 6th. A closer view of the southern end of the beaver dam where there were two short stretches of dam work.

November 18th. The southern end of the dam – the section shown in the second photograph. The growth of vegetation during the summer has covered the timbers that were laid in March. The beaver appear to have added more mud to the top of the dam. The pond seems to be a little deeper.

March 6th. The end of this section closest to the road. Some new wood has been added and mud packed onto the top of the dam.

November 18th. No sign of the timbers we saw in March but fresh mud has been packed into this section.

March 6th. The western end of this south section, the section away from the road. More new timber.

November 18th. Again. No sign of the timbers but more fresh mud has been packed onto the dam in this section.

March 6th. The north end of the beaver dam. New timber had been added to the dam. Mud had been added but it’s not visible in the photo. Looks like the rangers had been watching this activity and had added a section of pipe – we assumed the beaver didn’t add this - to the dam allow water to drain and discourage the beaver from building the dam higher. Failure of the dam would result in the release of a lot of water against the base of this raised road we were parked on and possibly damaging it.

November 18th. We didn’t see any beaver activity in this section of the dam and the drainage pipe wasn’t there.

November 18th. Looking across the pond at the northern section of the dam. The pond has a Wood Duck nest box, not far from the road and facing away from the road. We’ve never seen any evidence that the box had been used.

But we had another surprise in store. On our way back from Whitetail Lake on November 18th – it was late in the afternoon – we saw some ducks swimming on the pond…

From a distance, they looked different, like Wood Ducks.

An enlargement of the previous photo. It’s not a good shot but it’s clear they are Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa); two males and a female. They swam around in this area for a few minutes and then they swam…

back into the grasses and…

out of sight.

We waited for a while in case they swam out into the open again but we suspect they were looking for a place to settle down for the night. We’ll have to plan some trips to look for them again.
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Identification resource:
- All About Birds: Aix sponsa (Wood Duck)

Related posts:
- Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center: Fall Color