Our creek has gone dry (again) due to the ongoing drought.
I went to measure the water level in my lowest groundwater pond, and it still has 4' of water. However, I could smell "death" at the pond, and discovered a large dead beaver. I assume it was our previous creek beaver. If so, he travelled almost exactly a half mile to find water. He then excavated a nice burrow into the highest bank of my pond. He died about 8' from his burrow entrance, and was NOT obviously gnawed by any predator. The beaver had already started felling a medium willow at the pond, and there are several giant cottonwoods there, so I don't think he died due to lack of food.
I do miss our beaver. My creek is mostly overgrown with lots of undesirable trees, so I didn't mind when he cut or gnawed those. I did like it when he created additional pools on our creek, since that created a lot more fish habitat on our normally very shallow creek. Further, none of his prior creek alterations ran afoul of any state regulations! A lot of aquatic and non-aquatic wildlife are going to miss his habitat "improvements".
