Tuesday 24 May 2011

The Morning after the Storm

The night before last 25 mm of rain fell. Yesterday the wind blew, the Forth and Tay road bridges were closed and Edinburgh Airport shut down. I am glad to say that the dams in the Burnieshed Burn did not collapse.


The second big dam below the drive.



Much of the grass here has been grazed by the beavers.



I find it odd that the beavers are still eating bark. Perhaps the bulk of the bark balances the nutritive value of the young grass they are consuming?




The lowest of the big three dams below the drive is abundantly green: a true filtre.





 Two channels of water gush through the lower part of this dam. Do fish use them to swim up and down the burn?




A young willow has found a place to grow on the wall of the dam.



The pool above the dam.

Monday 16 May 2011


This is a small dam that Chris breaches from time to time. The beavers always repair it within a day or two of its breaching. This time, as though irritated by its removal, they have placed to large logs to buttress the dam and prevent its destruction.



I should have taken my SLR camera and a polaroid lens for this photo. You should be able to make out the head of a beaver below the dock plant. 

The scene is the Alyth Burn, or Water of Quiech (as it is known further down) as it flows through the town. The stream is contained by stone walls. A beaver, dispersing from, perhaps the Isla downstream or somewhere else, reached this place with its walls and shallow water at daybreak and needed to find a place to stay until dusk. At least that is what I think happened. Terrified by the sounds and smells of humans, and unable to dig into the wall, but fearful of swimming on, it tried to hide and was noticed eventually. 




Just south of the Quarry Cottages at Little Bamff is the burn where Mary, the runaway beaver from Bamff went to live during the winter of 2006/7. The willow she cut has been replaced by luxuriant coppice growth. Who could ever tell that a beaver had lived there?

An apple tree flowered in the further garden; the hedge between the two needed trimming.