The beavers at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marshland park, have been unusually active during daylight hours the last few days and I managed to get some pretty good shots of them feeding. I am still going through my photos and probably will post some more later, but I thought I would give a sneak preview by posting this image. Spoiler alert—my photos today, which I am still uploading, included some shots of a beaver pushing its way up through the ice and I hope they look as good on my computer screen as they did on the back of my camera.
Here is a profile shot from this weekend of one of the beavers munching on a stick (more like a twig) in the icy waters of the pond outside their lodge. I love the delicate way the beaver is holding the twig in his front paws, which look a lot like hands to me. Be sure to check out the nails on the left paw—they look to me like they were manicured.
Who knew that beavers have lips (at least that’s what it looks like in this photo)?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Great photo and the left paw is awesome. You must have charmed him to let you get that shot. What’s your secret?
My only secret is persistence and really good luck. The pond froze over when we had a series of days with a high temperature in the twenties and I think the beavers were feeling cooped up inside the den. So when the weather turned a bit warmer, they created a open area in the ice not too far from the lodge. The beaver was in that open area when I photographed it.
I’m not sure how I haven’t popped over here before now, but I’m glad I did. I scrolled down for quite a while and saw fabulous photo after phabulous foto, but I’ll just comment here. Good stuff, Mike!
Thanks, Sid. I appreciate you words of encouragement. I am still learning about photography and am having a lot of fun as I do so.
This is an excellent shot of a very hard to see critter-at least up here in New Hampshire. They appear to be much more social in your neck of the woods.
I wouldn’t say they are social, but they may not be so skittish around people. The ice on the pond seems to have constrained their movement a bit and they appear to stay close to the lodge, which is built on and under the boardwalk. That’s the reason why I am able to see shots from a relatively close position.
What an interesting pose. Their fur is much longer than I expected and seems to be thoroughly wet, instead of shedding water.
It was interesting to watch them. One of them spent a fair amount of time grooming himself before he went into the water for an extended period From what I read, spreading oil on the fur helps with the waterproofing.
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