Nature Walk

Last week Diane, the hounds and I headed out for a walk to try and see the beaver dam and possibly the moose that have been milling around town.  In addition to the moose that I saw behind the post office, there have been other moose sightings in town.

Ruffian running on the tundra

Leaves have already turned red and fallen off the blueberry bushes, while everything else is going dormant.

The hounds found some caribou bones (vertebrae column and pelvis here...they also found a femur)
 

And now for the best part:  the beavers.  We didn't actually see the beavers, but we got to check out their beaver mansion and infinity pool.  The beavers made a huge lodge, and then damned up a pond by building up walls made of sticks and mud.  The "infinity pool" wall is three feet tall and goes in a complete circle with the lodge sitting in the middle of it.

We also saw some moose tracks!  The moose I had seen behind the post office was a bull moose.  We saw two sets of moose tracks on the trail, one from an adult and one from a calf.  Since bull moose don't really hang around the calves, that means there's at least three moose in and out of Bethel!  (bull, cow and calf).

On the way back to the car the hounds picked up the caribou bones to munch on:

We also saw a kestrel flying!