Busy Beavers

An afternoon watching these industrious creatures at work was time well spent

On August 8, 2018, my two grandsons and I took a little hike along the nearby Red Deer River, where it runs through Dry Island Bu alo Jump Provincial Park. As we were walking along the trail, we spotted two beavers swimming in the river. We stopped to watch them for awhile and realized they’d built their lodge into the side of the riverbank.

We walked a little closer to get a better look at the lodge. It was pretty obvious the beavers were aware of our presence but it didn’t seem to bother them—they just went about their business.

We decided to sit and watch them. One of the beavers swam down the river a ways, and started to cut down a willow tree. It swam back to the lodge and dove under the water with the branch and disappeared.

One of my grandsons jumped up and walked over to see if he could spot where the beaver had gone. As he stood there, he could hear the baby beavers becoming very excited, it must have been feeding time so we all stood there listening to the little ones eating.

It wasn’t long before the beaver reappeared and started to swim back down the river again for another branch. This happened two more times and each time the beaver re-entered the lodge you could here the little ones get all excited again. After about the third time, the beaver reappeared and swam back down the river and got another branch but this time it brought the branch to the side of the river and began eating the bark.

This gave me a chance to snap some good photos. As time went by, the other beaver came along and they both headed for the riverbank and began grooming themselves.

By now the sun was setting, so we had to call it a day. All in all I think we were very lucky to get that close to the beavers and especially to be able to hear the little ones.

I enjoy photographing all types of animals, as well as landscapes, old buildings and old machinery. But what I enjoy most of all is picking up my grandsons to take them for a ride or a walk just to see what we can see.