Calgary’s Bow River has three main islands in it, St George’s where the zoo is located, St. Patrick’s and Prince’s Island. The latter has become what some consider to be Calgary’s own Central Park. It is a popular stroll adjacent to downtown that many take each day.
I happen to live beside it and enjoy it all summer long. Most of the island has manicured gardens and paved pathways, however, the eastern-most end of it has been left in a natural state, with just one circular path around it. It is there where the unexpected is found.
Cue the beavers
Probably the last thing one might expect in a busy public park is a beaver, or two. How long they have been busy there is hard to say, but their first dam is solid and secure. It has created a fair-sized pond that looks like it has been there for some time. I guess one dam is not enough however, for the beavers started on a new endeavor early this summer.
I’ve been tracking their progress. It has taken almost two months to build. Curious, I checked with Mr. Google to see how long beavers might take to make a dam. Turns out it is possible to do it in 24 hours. Huh? Was the time lag because they were very young and inexperienced beavers, I wondered? Could it be years of interbreeding producing such a thing as remedial beavers? Nope.
The slow work is likely because determined parks department workers have wired up every tree on the 37 – acre park. And there are a lot of trees. Every large trunk down to just about every sapling has been wired to protect them from those big beaver teeth. I guess beavers are clever enough to save their teeth for an easier bite of bark, hence the slow progress for their latest dam. It is made from very, very skinny baby trees that have a lot of leaves still clinging to them. It’s an engineering miracle that those branches weren’t swept downstream when put in place. But beavers are, as they saying goes, busy. Branch by branch, leaf by leaf the dam has been constructed over many long summer weeks. Now that’s determination, and perhaps a lesson for us all. When at first we don’t succeed, it’s the beaver we should heed.
More unexpected discoveries
Many years ago, when the kiddies were still in diapers, Auntie Judy came for a visit. It was Easter so of course there was chocolate. I thought I would surprise her, and put a chocolate egg under her pillow, thinking it would be a nice surprise when she went to bed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until morning when she lifted her pillow that she discovered it. The warmth of her head had melted the chocolate into a gooey brown mess.
I heard the shriek and rushed to her room along with a small troop of children. There stood Auntie Judy, pale and quivering, pointing an accusing finger at the dark brown blob and gazing with horror at the diaper-clad twins as she stuttered, “Wh-wh-what is THAT?”
Seems some discoveries are not, at first glance, happy ones. Hasty judgements can be ill advised. Worse, they can take the pleasure right out of a nice chocolate egg.