One evening after work, I decided to head back down to Juanita Bay to see if I could get more shots of the beavers.  I had been pleased with my first encounter and wanted to see whether there was a chance of getting some more shots.  The weather wasn’t so nice but I had nothing on for the evening so decided to hang out for a while.  I was there with nothing happening and the light gradually fading so set myself a target of 7pm.  If nothing happened by then, I would go home.  With about a minute to go before the top of the hour, a guy came out on to the deck I was on.

I figured I wouldn’t leave as he arrived since it would look like he had driven me away.  I would wait to give him time to get bored and leave.  Instead, a couple of minutes after I had planned to leave, out came a beaver.  It swam straight towards me along the shore eventually coming right under where I was standing.  I only had the long lens so it ended up way too close.  I should have used my phone to be honest.  I would never have seen it if it hadn’t been for his arrival.

I had a repeat a couple of days later.  I had seen a pair of beavers swim by – not so close this time – and they had gone around into the inlet and I hadn’t seen them return.  I was beginning to think I was not going to see them again but got a message from Nancy (who was traveling) to say she could chat.  We had a call for a short while when I noticed a tree shaking not far from me.  I told her I would call her back.  One of the beavers had come across the land and was chomping on the tree.  A little while passed and then it came down to the water, dropped in to the lake and swam right past me.  I was ready for it to be so close this time.  Another lucky break that I would have missed if it hadn’t been for the call.

I had been chatting with the photographers I meet down at Juanita Bay and they kept telling me about the beavers that come out in the evenings.  I could see the marks they had left so knew they were active but I had not had any luck seeing them.  The timing of their foraging was not ideal since it matched quite well with my own dinner.  With Nancy taking a trip, I decided to commit some time to trying to get some photos of them.  I didn’t have to try too hard!

My first evening down at the bay, I had barely got there when I saw my first beaver.  The head out of the water was easy to spot when the water was calm.  It was slower than the otters which we see there often and noticeably larger.  The lily pads are growing quickly at the moment and this is a snack of choice for the beavers.  They don’t need to come ashore to eat and instead float around the inlet stuffing as many lily pads in to their mouths as they can.

I decided to move from the end of the trail around to another deck area in the hope that the beaver would come that way.  Predicting the path of wildlife is a tricky game but this time I got lucky and it came right in to the spot I was standing.  A couple with a screaming child approached the deck and I feared the beaver would scram but it didn’t seem to care about us at all.  It was happy chewing on its dinner.

After a while, it swam across to the bank and disappeared – presumably to digest the huge amount it had just eaten.  The question was how long would it be gone?  The light was getting very nice but much later and the sun would be behind the trees.  I thought we might have a long wait but it didn’t take long before it popped out again.  Swimming around in front of us and then heading back across the bay meant I was very pleased with my luck.