Early Friday morning I heard a gnawing sound coming from under the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows Park. I watched and waited and eventually the head of a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) broke the surface of the water. The beaver chewed on sticks for a few minutes a short distance away from me and then disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
This encounter took place just before 7:00 in the morning when it was just getting light. Although I had my tripod with me, I figured that setting it up would require so much movement that I would scare away the beaver. Knowing I wanted to get as low an angle as I could, I slowly sat down on the boardwalk, which was elevated above the water by about two feet (61 cm), and rested my telephoto zoom lens on my camera bag for stability.
I checked the EXIF data for these shots and they were all taken with camera settings of about ISO 1600, f/7.1, 1/15 second, and a focal length of 552mm. Not surprisingly, when the beaver was actually moving, the shutter speeds were too slow to stop the motion, but I did manage to get some shots that were reasonably sharp.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Destructive but adorable. Nice shots Mike.
Thanks, Dan. At the park where I take a lot of my photos, the beavers are free to build their lodges wherever they want. The park has put wire fences around a few trees to protect them, but that’s the only control measure. The beavers even have one lodge that includes part of a bench on the boardwalk.
That’s pretty cool Mike.
Any shot of a beaver is a good one, in my opinion. You wouldn’t think that bark and twigs would be very nutritious but they must be since they keep so many animals alive, including deer and moose.
Fiber may be part of a good diet, but too much of good thing appears to be fattening!
They say the camera adds ten pounds and the roundness of the body is emphasized by this shooting angle. Still, it definitely looks like this beaver has not missed too many meals. 🙂