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Archive for the ‘beaver’ Category

Beaver at midday

Posted in animals, beaver, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 2, 2025| 2 Comments »

I was a bit surprised to spot this North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) swimming in Accotink Creek yesterday afternoon and managed to capture this image before it sensed my presence and disappeared under the water. Beavers are primarily nocturnal, so most of my beaver sightings in the past have been at dusk or dawn. I am not sure why this beaver was active in the early afternoon on a bright sunny day. Perhaps it was looking for food to feed a newborn beaver baby. Who knows?

Accotink Creek is part of the Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, a nature preserve mostly on the grounds of the U.S. Army installation Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Virginia, where I live. However, parts of the refuge, including the areas that I visited yesterday, are open to the public and do not require entry onto the military installation.

I am including a photo of a suspension bridge across Accotink Creek that is currently closed. The stairs from the two banks of the creek to the bridge are gone and I do not know if they were removed intentionally or were washed away in a flood. The photo gives you the relative sense of the size of the creek and the overall habitat in which I spotted the swimming beaver.

North American Beaver

Accotink Creek suspension bridge

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Beaver at midday

Posted in animals, beaver, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , on April 26, 2023| 3 Comments »

On Monday I went exploring at Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge at Fort Belvoir, a local US Army installation, and was pleasantly surprised to spot this North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) swimming in Accotink Creek just before midday. Beavers are generally nocturnal and most of the times when I have seen on in the past it has been at dawn or dusk.

I am not sure why this beaver was swimming during the day. Perhaps there are babies in the lodge and the beaver needed a moment of peace and relaxation. Whatever the case, I like the way that I was able to capture the ripples in the water as the beaver slowly swam past me.

beaver

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Beaver swimming at sunrise

Posted in animals, beaver, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on March 17, 2020| 19 Comments »

Last Monday I was thrilled to spot this North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) slowly swimming by me in the early morning light at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I was able to follow the beaver along the shore for several minutes before it disappeared with a big splash, as you can see in the final photo that show the beaver’s distinctive tail, the last part of the beaver to enter the water.

The limited light caused me to shoot at slower shutter speeds than the situation actually demanded, but the slight blurriness somehow enhances the dreamlike feeling of the time around sunrise. I checked the data on the final shot and was a little shocked to see that I took it with a shutter speed of 1/50 of a second. Somehow I was able to capture a decent composition and an almost abstract-style image—the image that you see is also uncropped.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those of you who are celebrating the holiday. I grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal, including a large parade that, alas, had to be canceled this year.

beaver

beaver

beaver

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mid-morning beaver swim

Posted in animals, beaver, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2018| 12 Comments »

Beavers are nocturnal creatures and consequently the best times to see them generally are at dawn and at dusk. Dragonflies, on the other hand, mostly like bright sunlight and they are often most visible during the hottest part of the day.

When I was walking around the small pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge yesterday morning around 10:00, therefore, I was expecting to see dragonflies. Imagine my shock when some motion in the water caught my eye and I spotted a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) lazily swimming by parallel to the shore on which I was standing.

The light on the water was amazing and gave it a golden glow, as you can see in the first image. The beaver made a gentle u-turn and I was able to capture the ripples and the wake it created in the second image. The beaver was then swimming  toward the light and that is why you can see some of the details of the eye in that second image.

I then decided to switch from my DSLR with my 180mm macro lens that I used for the first two shots to my Canon SX50 superzoom camera. The third image is framed just as it came out of the camera with no cropping and it lets you see some of the texture of the beaver’s fur and the little hairs that stick out of its face. I also love the way the patterns of the water look in this image.

This little incident was a reminder to be eternally vigilant. Wild creatures don’t always follow the rules and may turn up in unexpected places at unanticipated times.

beaver

beaver

beaver

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Beaver in the light

Posted in animals, beaver, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on April 15, 2015| 10 Comments »

As I was going over my photos of my recent encounter with a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis), I was struck by the beautiful quality and color of the early morning light. Sure, it was cool to be able to get some close-up shots of the beaver swimming around, but the light was equally spectacular.

I’ve tried to convey in these two images a sense of the golden glow that surrounded us during the magical moments I shared with this beaver, though somehow the colors seem to get a bit desaturated when I move the image into WordPress.

Check out my previous posting to see more images of this beautiful beaver.

North American Beaver

North American Beaver

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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