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Spring Farm Cares' Wildlife Refuge Surprise

2009.05.28
It's idyllic.Fifty acres of farm sanctuary and 200 acres of wildlife sanctuary. Below is the barn with horses, a wise old donkey, sheep, goats, barn cats, etc. and on the right is George Kigercat Hall, designed by and named after a cat. It's where rooms and rooms of cats live in comfort and will be able to live there forever.

I crossed the road to the wildlife sanctuary and found a pile of logs where a curious and bold little fellow came out to see what I was doing.

I was very pleased and surprised to find a pond!

and lots of fallen logs on one side.

I thought "Wow! This looks like a beaver dam!", but I'd never seen one so I couldn't be sure.

As I scanned the area for birds, I put my binoculars down, and couldn't believe my eyes! A beaver was silently swimming towards me.

I thought he'd go under water if he saw me, but he came closer...

... and closer...

... and closer...

... and closer...

... until he was within fifteen feet of me. Then I saw why he was so focused...

The naturalist had left some apples in the pond and the beavers knew where to go to get them. Right in front of me, he snagged this one.

I thought that was great and I wouldn't see him again, but pretty soon he came back to munch on some aspen leaves.

He looked up at me for a moment...

... then went back to munching leaves and chewing branches.

When he'd had enough, he dragged a branch back to the den and dove under.

West of the Adirondacks, outside a small town called Clinton, NY, there is a 200 acre wildlife refuge, actively managed by a full time naturalist who is restoring the habitat. I took a walk there, planning on birdwatching when I had a wonderful surprise!
7 Comments
ScubaLiz Wow! GREAT set! I love the little chipmunk, but the beaver shots are awesome!
ScubaLiz · 2009-05-28: 23:15
urmysunshine How cool, what a great opportunity!!~
urmysunshine · 2009-05-29: 08:45
gderuiter What a fun experience! Tell the chipmunk to stay away from the cat house!
gderuiter · 2009-05-29: 10:24
mystic1 Great shots!! Looks like the delta in my area, real nice closeup of the Beaver
mystic1 · 2009-05-29: 14:35
PennyWyatt Wonderful post, thank you for sharing
PennyWyatt · 2009-05-29: 23:38
oakley Very great shots!!
oakley · 2009-05-31: 22:44
greglip Very cool and as always, your captions really make it! I think we saw a beaver last year when biking the C&O canal but it wasn't quite close enough to be sure. Maybe it could have been a muskrat but it went down under what appeared to be a beaver dam.
greglip · 2009-06-02: 12:23
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