Our Moose of Beaver Bog

Our moose has returned

Last summer we had a female moose in residence in the bog that we saw regularly three times a day for weeks. She appears to be back, bigger than ever. I don't know how to identify individual mooses, but animals usually return to spots that they have enjoyed in the past. So I say this is her. You can judge for yourself by clicking here and comparing.

Here, she is munching cat tails.

The moose is in her "molt," so she looks pretty scruffy and three-toned. But soon she'll be looking fine and will only have two tones.

She doesn't like her photo being taken

This is a cross-post from meeyauw.

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Walking Home Through the Woods

A view of our home from the edge of the woods on Barton Mountain while walking down after a winter hike.

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Stone Flume in Winter

Stone Flume

Stone Flume is across the road. The kids go water sliding on it in the summer. The flow of water through it is regulated by the beaver dam upstream. You can explore the ruins of a century old mill on the side of it. The brush in the foreground is alder and willow that the beaver eat. This photograph was taken in February, but now, in April, the flume looks the same. There is a wider flow of water now, but it is still covered in ice and the beaver bog meadow, that the water flows into, is still entirely covered in about one foot of snow. I suppose I could have entitled this post "Stone Flume in Spring"!

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One Single Impression: Fog

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Thank you for visiting!

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Beaver Dam 5

As May Brook flows from May Pond to Crystal Lake, I personally know of five beaver dams that have been built on the brook. This is Dam 5 just below my house. This is the site of an old mill, with the mill house and cement dam. The beaver have built their dam on top of the human dam. You can see the dam to the right of the mill house (it is a large pile of sticks).

Beaver Set

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Sky Watch Friday: Cowslips In The Beaver Bog

Last Saturday I put my barn boots on and walked across the road to the beaver bog to photograph the marsh marigolds (or cowslips) — the yellow you see in the photo above. This is not the part of the bog directly in front of my house, but a section to the east. The cowslips are spreading every year. In Europe, cowslip is a different flower. These flowers are native and are a member of the buttercup family.

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One Single Impression: Deserted

Coyote appears

peeper song deserts the bog
blackbirds screak alarm

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The bog is greening up at the outer edges. Male red-winged blackbirds stand guard on the bare, drowned trees. The females, the color of the dry cattails, will stay mostly hidden from view. The birds are beginning nesting activity. Coyote, fox, mink, fisher, crows and hawks will try to grab the baby blackbirds. Deer will give birth in the meadow beside the bog because the grasses grow so tall that the fawns are not visible even when they stand up. This is the first photo of the bog taken with my Canon Rebel XSi. Yes! It came on Friday! I'll be using the Canon and the Kodak while I learn how to use the new camera.

I want to thank you all for your patience with me as I have not been visiting your poetry. I have had some unfortunate and sad events in my life in the past two weeks and have not had the heart to do anything except photography and posting. Somehow those activities comfort and soothe me; perhaps because of their familiarity. And Sandy? Thank you for sustaining me on dark nights. It made all the difference to me and I'll never forget your kindnesses.

I have been reading Ackworth Born's book The Art of Haiku and I feel that the first two articles have helped me understand and enjoy haiku more than any other information I have read. I will be finishing this book and reviewing it on One Single Impression as soon as possible. In the meantime, I suggest that you click this link and purchase the book. It is a valuable resource. I hope you enjoyed my poem.

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Sky Watch Friday: What The Beaver See

The view of my house (white, on right) from the top of the flume at the top of the beaver bog.

From the same spot, with some zoom, the Duquette Barn, down the road from me. The beaver bog is known locally as Duquette Flats after the bachelor farmers who lived at that farm in the early years of the 20th century. If you click on the photo to view it full-size, you can see, on the left of the photo, the old shed at the top of the main beaver dam and part of Doyle Road.

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My Neighbor, the American Beaver

The beaver live mostly on my end of the bog. They are out and about at dawn and dusk, usually just as the light is growing or going. But I was lucky this past Saturday morning while sitting on my porch. This big guy was chomping on all sorts of vegetation in the ponds that he helped to create. Click here to see my photos of the main dam. Above, he is sitting on a flooded hummock.

In these two photos, he is swimming about between two hummocks that would be perfect goose nest areas. Photos were taken with full 10x zoom with Kodak Z710 camera. My Canon is coming soon! (Story later!)

Below: his house. This lodge is visible from every window in the front of my house.

American Beaver (Castor canadensis)

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Beaver Dam

View of the back of the dam looking east at the eastern end of the beaver bog near Doyle Road.
This is the best time to view dams because the foliage is not out.

The front of the same dam, looking west. There used to be a human dam here. I haven't learned why it was built yet, but may have been for a mill whose ruins are on the western end of the bog, nearer to my house. When clicked, these photos will open, full size, in a new window.

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One Single Impression: Color

Geese glide on snow melt

Otter tumble through wet slate
Beaver bog in spring

The photo of my beloved beaver bog was taken Saturday morning, 19 April 2008. For Sandy: see the snow in the woods? Still here, everywhere. The otter are back and even though they were swimming slowly it was still too quick for me to capture on camera. Besides the goose and gander here, there is a red-winged blackbird on the drowned tree. Please click on the photo in order to see the beauty here. There is no better spot on earth to inspire haiku as here. I think that this is my best haiku at this time. Gentle constructive critiques will be appreciated. I am understanding a little about the form of haiku now and I got a book this week.

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