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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 1716865" data-attributes="member: 12449">The BlobIndeed, correct you are, congratulations.Temperatures sub-zero, ice half a metre thick, your average self-respecting Beaver in Lithuania spends the whole winter snug in its aquatic lodge, isolated from the world outside. Not so the pesky one that resides on my pools - despite temperatures touching minus 30 C during the week and heavy snow overnight, the blighter has gnawed a tunnel from his underwater lair! For two weeks, padded flat, a trail has meandered through the snow from the frozen pool off yonder to a stand of birch, freshly nibbled stumps evidence of guilt. Today, with snow drifting in parts up to half a metre deep, my meadows yet again snagged the car, a particularly deep patch of snow serving admirably as a impromptu car park. From there, it was on foot. Labouring forward, I tramped through the snow, adjacent Bullfinches feeding on exposed seed heads, a Goldfinch tinkling overhead. Tracks of Red Fox and Roe Deer crossed my path, I looked up and there it was, the ‘Blob’. A blob, dark and low-slung, was shuffling along the Beaver path, I was staggered - never have I have seen a mid-morning Beaver risking a land crossing. I ducked and watched it go, direct into my prize birches, the swine. As fast a snow allows, I darted across. Evil thoughts entered my mind - with only a single bolt hole, finally I would have chance to catch the thing and relocate him to better waters, possibly happy Beaver, definitely happy me. I didn’t do it, instead I crouched on a bank of snow and awaited his return -  three or four minutes later, back he came shuffling, a birch sapling in his chompers, another three metre tree on its way to a watery grave.Straight past me he went, down his hole and gone, my best ever views of a Beaver. This individual, almost certainly a young animal, arrived on the pool only in the late autumn, I presume having insufficient time to then store enough food before the freeze set in, hence the need to now forage in mid-winter, a high-risk strategy. Despite many on my land, I only ever see a Beaver every year or two, so very much a red letter day! As for the feeders, strangely quiet on this day, dozens and dozens of Blue and Great Tits as usual, but a poor showing by the woodpeckers - one Middle Spotted, a couple of Great Spotted and a noisy Black, roll on February!</blockquote>

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