the Way of the Turtle

A NEW CAMERA - AND BEAVERS!!!!
1.5 Mile Walk at Five Rivers EEC
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I had planned to go for a run after work... but then found myself too tired and hungry when I got home, and finally settled on going for a walk at Five Rivers after I grabbed a bite to eat.

Except - when I stepped out the door, I found a package on the steps containing a new camera. As part of their bankruptcy restructuring Kodak is phasing out their digital camera unit and, given the sale e-mail I received late last week, is looking to sell off the cameras they currently have to raise a bit of capital. I've been very happy with my Canon cameras (my Powershot SX110IS not only takes great photos, but it continues to work after tons of abuse over the last few years) and had looked at a higher level model (something like the SX40) but really, I can't justify spending $400+ on a camera unless I'm going to start shooting photos for money. So when I received an ad for a sale on the Kodak Easyshare Max (Z990) for a very sweet price (less than I paid for my Canon) I checked out the reviews and decided to take a chance.

Of course, that delayed me even further, since I had to take time to set the camera up so I could try it out during my walk. But finally I made it out the door and to Five Rivers, with about an hour to spare before dark.

Tonight was another chilly, windy evening - I ended up wearing gloves most of the time. Since I was trying to take lots of pictures I didn't walk very far. The turkey hen was hanging out near the Visitors Center - she always looks lonely to me now that her two young 'uns are gone, but maybe we'll get lucky and she'll have more chicks this year. Given how chilly it's been, I didn't expect to see any frogs in the man-made pond, so I was happy to have a couple floating in the water. Heading down toward the Heron Pond, I took some nice shots of a red squirrel chowing down on a pine cone.

The beavers have clearly been active - they've built a small dam on top of the spillway out of the Heron Pond, presumably to raise the water level. I wonder if they've outgrown the Beaver Pond and some will be moving upstream? I surprised one of the older adult beavers when I crossed the road to the Beaver Pond; initially, he swam around a bit, but then he came back to shore and continued eating. While I was there taking photos of him, three other beavers came swimming upstream, including one that crossed the road and ended up in the Heron Pond. It's good to see them so active - I was a bit worried that all the work they did at the far end of the Beaver Pond might have driven them away, but happily that's not the case.

I watched the beavers until it started getting too dark to do so, then walked back to the parking lot, along the access road next to the Heron Pond and then the grass path to the orchard. I could hear the woodcocks doing their thing in the fields and had some really nice views of both the almost full moon appearing and disappearing behind the clouds and Venus and Jupiter shining in the sky to the southwest.

JMH