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ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FORUM => Topic started by: jalentour on December 17, 2017, 11:02:23 am

Title: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: jalentour on December 17, 2017, 11:02:23 am
I was crossing my bridge over a small creek and saw a beaver swimming under the ice and popping back up eating something.  Never in my life did expect to see a beaver here in SE Indiana about a mile from the Ohio River. 
It's a healthy creek, and I hope it sticks around for awhile, but I'd like her better down stream. 
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 18, 2017, 04:21:43 pm
>...but I'd like her better down stream.

Especially right after she builds a dam and floods your back yard or kills all your trees...  I do love to watch them.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: BeeMaster2 on December 19, 2017, 08:25:13 am
We have beavers here in N FL. They build dams and flood the road near me. Maintenance crews have to keep breaking their dams.
Jim
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 19, 2017, 09:35:16 am
My favorite beaver experience was up in the Snowy mountains above Laramie.  I was elk hunting and come on a series of beaver dams and could hear the beavers talking to each other so I hid and watched.  The weather was sub zero at the time and all the ponds were frozen over.  The beaver in the bottom pond opened up the dam and let the water out until the ice started to crack.  Then he/she stopped the dam and called to the beaver in the next pond up, who opened up that dam and let it run until the ice cracked more in the bottom dam and some in the top dam and the beaver blow told the beaver above that it was enough and they stopped up that dam.  They leapfrogged up the series of ponds until all the ice had been cracked on all of the ponds.  I assume this was for their own purposes, probably so they could swim into and out of their houses but it freed up the ice so the elk and deer to could drink out of the ponds.  The talking and coordinating of the work was what surprised me.  It took them hours to get the work done.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Dallasbeek on December 19, 2017, 02:11:46 pm
Got a lot of elk hunting in that day, did you?
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 19, 2017, 03:28:31 pm
>Got a lot of elk hunting in that day, did you?

:)  Obviously, not that day.  But that's the wonderful thing about hunting... the gems that happen because you're in the woods...  I once saw an albino bobcat when I was deer hunting.  I watched it for quite some time as well.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: 220 on December 19, 2017, 05:32:45 pm
Couldn't agree more MB nothing like being out there and taking in what is happening in front of you.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 20, 2017, 09:02:55 am
>Couldn't agree more MB nothing like being out there and taking in what is happening in front of you.

Nature is full of surprises and we only have the present moment.  The present moment in Nature can be quite breathtaking.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: jalentour on December 20, 2017, 01:50:48 pm
I always get a chuckle when, I'm in the deer stand, a pair of hoot owls start going at it.  For some reason I just think that is funny.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: herbhome on December 20, 2017, 01:58:38 pm
Michael,

That's fascinating, I was unaware they were capable of that level of coordination.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 20, 2017, 03:06:01 pm
>I always get a chuckle when, I'm in the deer stand, a pair of hoot owls start going at it.  For some reason I just think that is funny.

Everywhere I live there are always great horned owls.  They have some very animated conversations...
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: BeeMaster2 on December 20, 2017, 08:22:57 pm
I was sitting in a tree stand after shooting a 6 point buck with a bow. I was waiting the 30 minutes to let it settle down when I heard a lot of noise in the opposite direction from where the buck was last seen. I thought it was my hunting buddy coming in to go to lunch but a Doe jumped over a bunch of palmetto bushes and stopped in a clearing, a 4 point buck jumped in right behind her and mated her. They were 40 yards from me and almost in a strait line shot.  I could have shot both of them with one arrow. When they were done they ran a 30 yard circle around me and ran right into the spot where I last saw the 6 point buck.
It was pretty amazing experience.
Jim
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Michael Bush on December 21, 2017, 08:21:01 am
I always find it amazing when there are deer and they don't know I'm there.  Not a common experience when rifle hunting, but it is common when bow hunting.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: gww on December 21, 2017, 10:50:40 am
I have many times dropped a deer and just kept sitting and got a second one who was consintrating on the first deer more then consintrating on me during rifle season.  For me it is hit and miss on how alert the deer are.  Some times they wind me and catch movement quickly and other times it does not seem to matter what I do, they don't seem to notice.

I have not bow hunted very much at all but do wonder a bit if it being (most times) a little earlier in the year and not as many people in the woods makeing the movement a bit differrent.
Cheers
gww
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: jalentour on May 10, 2018, 10:26:39 pm
GWW,
Ive had the same experience.
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: BeeMaster2 on May 11, 2018, 01:37:44 am
GWW,
I have shot arrows over ad deer and have come right back to the same spot within minutes to see what it was that spooked them. My first buck took an arrow straight through the heart, launched 30 feet and then went back to eating. I thought I had missed him until he layed down and picked his head up 3 times before going to sleep for good.
Jim
Title: Re: Saw a beaver yesterday
Post by: Ben Framed on August 19, 2019, 06:06:24 am
My favorite beaver experience was up in the Snowy mountains above Laramie.  I was elk hunting and come on a series of beaver dams and could hear the beavers talking to each other so I hid and watched.  The weather was sub zero at the time and all the ponds were frozen over.  The beaver in the bottom pond opened up the dam and let the water out until the ice started to crack.  Then he/she stopped the dam and called to the beaver in the next pond up, who opened up that dam and let it run until the ice cracked more in the bottom dam and some in the top dam and the beaver blow told the beaver above that it was enough and they stopped up that dam.  They leapfrogged up the series of ponds until all the ice had been cracked on all of the ponds.  I assume this was for their own purposes, probably so they could swim into and out of their houses but it freed up the ice so the elk and deer to could drink out of the ponds.  The talking and coordinating of the work was what surprised me.  It took them hours to get the work done.

That is Amazing...