NYCkayaker Meter Reader Deceiver Re: What's up in the Bronx?

[sandy sobanski]

Next time-if you are low on cash and time and have a
little furry creature you want gone, and fast...I
recommend intoducing him to Jim W.   I really lked
that cute little baby seal that appeared at the
DTBH....
--- ralph diaz <ralphdiaz at optonline.net> wrote:

> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Whitlock" <johnmwhitlock at comcast.net>
> 
> > Finally they just disappeared.  Because I had
> wrapped the trees we didn't
> > want the beavers to cut down in chicken wire, we
> suspect that after a
> while
> > they ran out of suitable saplings and just gave
> up.  Either that or some
> > critter got them, and it takes a pretty large and
> hungry predator to take
> on
> > an adult beaver.
> 
> Not to belabor our beaver tales (tempted to write
> this as tails, but that's
> too cute).  Last year along the edge of the half
> mile wide marsh that abuts
> our property.  I had seen something huge lying in
> the brush and almost
> stepped into a heap of guts while approaching it. 
> It was a monstrous size
> beaver, quite dead and on its stomach.  I had a hard
> time turning it over
> with a stick because of its weight.  It's throat had
> been ripped out and it
> had been disemboweled (hence the nearby gut heap). 
> Over the course of the
> next week, the gut heap got eaten down by something
> (likely birds) but the
> corpse would be moved every day a few feet deeper
> into the brush. The corpse
> and its valuable beaver pelt finally just
> disappeared.  I could not figure
> out what would have been moving it or for what
> purpose as little more seemed
> to be feasted on. For that matter I was never
> certain what sort of creature
> had hastened its demise.  Looking at the front feet,
> which held enormous
> claws (the hind feet were scuba diver large
> flippers), I can't imagine what
> would risk being swiped by them.  It may have been
> coyotes working as a team
> a la those creatures in Jurassic Park.  Coyotes are
> the most likely to eat
> their fill and move on in their wide range of
> travel.  Possibly it could
> have been a bear.  Sometime around this time I also
> found a large heap of
> bear scat at the far end of my back lawn.  Anyway, a
> double mystery that may
> require a visit from Catskill CSI.
> 
> The Sunday NY Times editorial today about the Bronx
> River beaver surmised
> that it would not likely find enough timber material
> to create much of a
> dam.  I am not certain that is true since they can
> haul materials from
> fairly far away and it doesn't have to be all
> timber.  Rocks and mud seem to
> be staples of what they use.  Also I read somewhere
> that its lodge was kind
> of threadbare in looks.  It called to mind the
> opposite: a perfect lodge I
> did literally run across while jogging along one of
> our local rail trails.
> It was in the middle of a farmer's field that the
> beavers had managed to
> completely flood.  You had a good perspective of the
> spot because the rail
> trail at that point is on a high causeway that the
> railroad once used.  The
> lodge appeared at least 10 feet tall and full and it
> was in a perfect
> pyramid shape with round sides.  I mentioned it to
> others including my wife
> but had not made clear exactly where it was.  One
> day we were out on a run
> with me going faster and further out on the rail
> trail than she was running.
> When we met back at the car, she was excited by
> having come across the lodge
> and its architectural perfection.  It really is
> something to behold.
> Perhaps I should run tourist trips out to see it.
> :-)
> 
> ralph diaz
> 
> 
>
**********************************************************************
> The NYCKayaker mailing list is hosted by
> www.rockandwater.net, and is a public service
> offered to the kayaking community by the Hudson
> River Watertrail Association. Learn more about HRWA
> at www.hrwa.org
> 
> To unsubscribe or change delivery options:
>
http://www.rockandwater.net/mailman/listinfo/nyckayaker
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't pick lemons.
See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html