Serendipity at Baltimore Woods

"This past summer I was fortunate to be at the right place, at the right time, to have a very special experience by the brook on the Griffiths Trail.

I had just sat down when a beaver came swimming down from upstream. I could see something round and brown protruding from its mouth. When it was opposite me, about twenty feet away, I could see a beaver tail protruding from the opposite side - a beaver kit! She, and I assumed that it was its mother, swam over to the bank burrow and dove. A few minutes later she swam by me, minus the kit, and disappeared upstream. Soon she was back with another kit in her mouth, and dove by the bank burrow.

But on her next trip she did a most extraordinary thing, something in all of my hours of watching I had never seen and heard before. When she returned from the burrow, she swam in a circle in front of me, and emitted a groan-like sound. At the risk of sounding anthropomorphic, I felt as if she was sharing her concern with me. Then she continued upstream but in a minute or two was back, with no kit.

While watching beavers from the lower Valley Trail bridge, I'd notice that sometimes a beaver would disappear where a branch overhung the water. I suspected that there was a bank burrow there. We'd been having much rain so I suspected that it had been used as a nursery, and became flooded. She went back, but sadly was too late to save any more kits."

by Audrey Loewer, Baltimore Woods Volunteer


Baltimore Woods has been the setting of many wildlife sighting stories like the one Audrey witnessed. If you have a story you'd like to share, please e-mail blog@baltimorewoods.org.