Busy as a Beaver = Timber!

Our friends (who also live at the lake) awoke the other morning to discover the landscape next to their house had been altered. A fairly large tree had come down and was partially lying in the water. 


Upon closer inspection of the tree trunk, the tell-tale signs of a beaver appeared. During the night, a beaver chewed away at the tree and brought it down! 

Look underneath and you can see all the wood chips from the beaver gnawing at the tree.

We see all sorts of critters around the lake and there are plenty of beaver dams and lodges. However, for the most part, I've rarely seen them at work -- usually I see them in the mornings and evenings swimming along the shoreline, probably on their way to an important beaver meeting. They always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere! 

Not only do beavers use trees for building their dams and lodges, but they also eat the bark and the soft wood just beneath the bark. 

The beaver removed all the branches from the tree trunk closest to the water and hauled them off to his building site.

Beavers cannot control which way the tree will fall and occasionally they will be trapped or killed by the tree they take down. Luckily for our friends, this tree happened to fall in the water. If it had fallen towards their house, it would've fallen on their deck and possibly their kitchen! See how close this tree was to their boat lift:

I returned the next morning to take another photo -- and saw that Mr. Beaver had returned during the night to start gnawing the fallen tree again. He's making firewood!

Thanks for visiting!