A good friend of many years, Steve, lives on a canal boat most frequently moored along the Grand Union Canal near Rickmansworth. Canal boats and Beavers seem to go well together and for several years Steve has been asking about how he might get to see a Eurasian Beaver, in the UK. He'd looked into several options but with a bit of research we settled on a joint trip to Canterbury where amidst a thriving population along the River Stour there are some that can be readily seen, with a little patience, within the town centre. Having walked the length of the suitable bits of riverside, to familiarise ourselves with where we might look, we headed off for a meal and returned at the favourable hour, 7.30pm early evening. Just after 8 we saw someone with their phone pointed at the water, a Beaver had just passed them so we went up on the bridge a little way along and were treated to seeing a large adult Beaver swim up river and directly beneath us, easily seen through the crystal clear water. Here's a little compilation of all Steve's phone footage plus some from the fella who first got us on to the magnificent rodent.
The next day we spent much of our time in Blean Woods and on the chalk downs looking for orchids, but returned in the evening to enjoy more, and closer views of the Beavers. Fantastic and charismatic mammals, their presence was evident in the many gnawed trunks and branches along the riverside.
We also saw lots of evidence of Beavers over at Stodmarsh, where a morning walk was full of Hobbies, Cuckoo's and Bitterns. It was a little overcast and breezy but I was surprised at the lack of Odonata on the wing. Freshly emerged Black-tailed Skimmer and Norfolk Hawker were static amongst the vegetation.
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