Truly a Sublime Sunday for me. I found a fresh Deer Antler Shed this morning, and saw a Beaver swimming in the creek last night.
For those that don't know, all deer shed (lose) their antlers each year. This typically happens sometime Jan-March. I was very lucky to come across this one today. Actually Betty the dog found it. It was buried in the snow, with just three of the tips sticking out a bit. She kept pawing at it, and when I looked to see what she was pawing at, recognized the tips immediately. What a lucky find!
This is the best time to be looking for them, one to find them before others do, also if they lay very long, rodents, porcupines, and other critters will chew them up and eat them. This one is very fresh, probably only a week or two old and in fantastic shape.
During our walk, we found the Beavers have apparently moved farther up the creek and have been building more dams. This was my first time actually spotting them. They have at least 4-5 dams built now and are basically flooding this whole area in the ravine, making what was a nice, flowing creek only 5-6 feet wide into several shallow little ponds several hundred feet wide. Not sure I am liking this as the stagnant water will for sure become a massive mosquito breeding ground in the spring and summer vs. the nice fast moving creek that keeps them from breeding in it. They've also flooded out one of my ATV trails to the creek. I'm thinking at least a couple of these dams will have to go. Planning to blow them out with some Tannerite. Stay tuned for that.
Was a fantastic Sunday to be out and about. I also found we were being watched as we enjoyed our exploration.
This Tufted Titmouse giving us the upside down peek at us from the branches above.