On Thanksgiving eve (day off), we went out to the new beaver-world attraction on the farthest bog. This was early afternoon. We were able to approach the den and heard, at first, work being done. The thin layer of fresh ice on the new beaver pond was cracking from wood falling into the water.
We saw movement.
Securing Murphy to a branch, I crept toward the den. Here you can get a sense of how close I got – about twenty yards (top image) and how good my camera is with high resolution in lower light (cropped lower image). I did not use a tripod and it was not easy to steady the lens at 200mm. The brownish blob in the lower center is a beaver.
A better view of one of the beavers (we saw two in total) came out in image three.
The beaver is to the left of the den in the last image.
The coldest morning of the season so far.