Beaver Dam Pond in Acadia National Park is a wonderful spot for photography. Going to black and white mode and using a red filter here we show off the birches and the feathery effect resulting. A red filter tends to darken greens and blues (water and evergreens) and lightens yellows and reds (October’s showy colors being absorbed by the filter). But the real magic of this scene was the post storm sun going in and out as it raced along the landscape, highlighting the luminescent whites on the bark. Got to acknowledge the beavers (though honestly, the lodge I think detracts from this image a bit) — this lodge has been existing on the pond for as long as I have been a witness — probably 20 years passing by on the Loupe Road.
Quoting from National Geographic beavers are quite amazing, including some things I didn’t know:
"Beavers are famously busy, and they turn their talents to reengineering the landscape as few other animals can. When sites are available, beavers burrow in the banks of rivers and lakes. But they also transform less suitable habitats by building dams. Felling and gnawing trees with their strong teeth and powerful jaws, they create massive log, branch, and mud structures to block streams and turn fields and forests into the large ponds that beavers love. Domelike beaver homes, called lodges, are also constructed of branches and mud. They are often strategically located in the middle of ponds and can only be reached by underwater entrances. These dwellings are home to extended families of monogamous parents, young kits, and the yearlings born the previous spring. Beavers are among the largest of rodents. They are herbivores and prefer to eat leaves, bark, twigs, roots, and aquatic plants. These large rodents move with an ungainly waddle on land but are graceful in the water, where they use their large, webbed rear feet like swimming fins, and their paddle-shaped tails like rudders. These attributes allow beavers to swim at speeds of up to five miles (eight kilometers) an hour. They can remain underwater for 15 minutes without surfacing, and have a set of transparent eyelids that function much like goggles. Their fur is naturally oily and waterproof."