Beaver lodge at Humber Bay Park East on a sunny early spring afternoon. © BCP 2010
At last! Even though it sometimes seemed like it would never come, March has finally arrived. And in like a lamb, too. The sun was out, the sparrows were chirping, the swans were fighting and the ducks were doing their silly-looking mating rituals. I was even lucky enough to hear two cardinals calling to each other this afternoon. Don’t know if they were a pair that overwintered here, or whether it was two males calling to mark out their territories. Whichever the answer, all these signs surely point to one fact — spring must be around the corner! Well, officially, there are another 19 days to go until the vernal equinox, but the signs are surely positive.
Today’s outing took me to Humber Bay Park East, where the first thing I saw was this huge beaver house. Looks more like an apartment block, or at least a duplex, based on the size of the thing. I wondered if anybody were home. Didn’t see any beavers, actually. But that’s not too surprising since they’re active at night, rather than the day. But I didn’t have to go far to find out the answer to my question. There were freshly cut saplings all around me, all bearing the telltale teeth marks of a very busy beaver. Guess I’ll have to come back closer to dusk another day to see if I can actually see the resident beaver — more likely a mated pair, I would think — actually at home.
It always amazes me that we have these industrious mammals throughout our bustling city. I’ve seen beaver lodges lots of places in the Big Smoke, including Colonel Sam Smith Park, Ashbridge’s Bay Park, the Leslie St. Spit, and here at Humber Bay. The beavers don’t seem to mind being so close to humans and all their structures. And humans don’t seem to be bothered too much by these large rodents. But boy, do they cause a lot of damage to our parks — damage that’s not easily reparable.
Guess that’s the price we pay to have these fascinating creatures in our backyards. How Canadian, eh?
© BCP 2010
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