The snow that fell yesterday morning was fast disappearing, joining previous snowfalls in melting into the creek to raise its levels, helped considerably more by the heavy rainfall we experienced a few days earlier. Which event, had it been as cold as usual for this time of year, would have resulted in a considerable snowfall.

The beaver dam, just a few hundred yards on from where we cross the first bridge in the ravine, seems more than adequate to task of holding back the water level in the newly-created beaver pond. Critical to the beavers' over-winter survival, since it must be of a sufficient depth to ensure that the creatures can live there comfortably, underneath that portion of their pond which will freeze over throughout the colder of the winter months.

It's obvious how busy they have been in storing up supplies for winter. We've noted for the last month or so the growing absence of young poplars along the near banks of the creek, where their sharp teeth have cut down trees, during the night-time hours. Some which they started to produce their wedge-cut in, appear to have been abandoned at least temporarily, because of their girth, with more attention given to the immature trees. Some of which have been hung up in the tangled branches of adjacent trees, but which the enterprising beavers have somehow managed to pull free.

Yesterday, for the first time, we saw that they had ventured further up the bank of the creek, above the trails, to begin selecting other potential food sources, having appeared to exhaust the inventory of young poplars closer to the creek itself. Until they clear away those later selections by dragging them into the water and cutting them into useful storage sections, we shall have to clamber over the now-recumbent trees splayed across the trail.