ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

How fortuitous, that, with my show about a beaver, a turtle and a salamander that I have beavers building a dam very near my house!  Two nights ago, at dusk, I went out to put a stick into the edge of the water as a marker to see how the water level changes.  As I stood back up I heard a loud THWACK!  A beaver! -Just across the river in the high water in the woods! Then, another THWACK!  I stood still. I waited.  In the minimal light I couldn’t see the beaver.  Then just a bit downstream, in the light of the moon, I saw ripples on the surface of the water.  That’s it! Then I could see that the ripples were coming TOWARD me!  I watched, motionless, as the beaver swam right past me and back into the woods.   After a while, hearing nothing, I decided to walk down to the bridge that has the dam underneath.  I stood on the bridge looking at the dark water below. Nothing. Then some movement caught my eye and I could see an animal coming out from under the bridge on the large rocks.  I couldn’t make it out. Then, silhouetted in the light coming from my neighbor’s house, I could see it was a fox! It stopped and watched as a little dog ran into the yard barking.  When the owner called out, the fox turned, ran back across the road by the bridge and disappeared into a bit of woods.   I looked up and watched a bat flapping against the dim light of the sky.  I could not have felt happier.