Beaver or groundhog? Looking for clues.

The other day I showed you this picture of what I called a groundhog. Some of my readers thought it was a juvenile beaver. So I’ll pose the question, what do you think?

Meanwhile I went looking for clues.

Creek bed at the base of the hill behind our house. It swells with rainfall.

I took my ferocious wildlife tracking canine and my human body guard with me.

As we walked along the creek bed, we saw the big tree where I’ve photographed groundhogs in the past.

We saw quite a few tracks in the mud, but they were mostly white-tailed deer tracks. No big surprise.

I did see a couple of tracks like these. I don’t know whether they are just messed up deer tracks or something else.

When I looked online I couldn’t identify them.

We also saw this pile of tree branches across the creek bed. One of the dead ash trees in the woods had fallen across the creek, and Mark thinks that it served as a barrier to block other sticks  that got washed down the creek. I don’t know what to think. In the pools visible at the bottom of the photo, Mark noticed a couple of small gold fish swimming around with many minnows.

Circle and saturated color around goldfish added in photoshop for visibility.

Where do these guys come from? We believe our creek is part of the Mill Creek Water Shed, but mostly it carries runoff from the rain.

I tried to capture a photo of the many minnows that swim about and are easy to see by the naked eye due to their motion, but apparently are not so easy to capture as a digital image. I got a lot of reflection of the trees and skies.

I think you can see one minnow in the middle of this photo. I’ll have to admit; I just wasn’t expecting there to be fish living down in the creek.

We had the bonus of a couple of hawks landing above our heads. I only got one in the picture.  This might be a Cooper’s hawk, but I’m not sure.

The final piece of evidence came from one of the plastic chairs we use at the bottom of our yard. Can you see the teeth marks? Somebody was gnawing on this. What do you think, beaver, groundhog, or maybe just a squirrel?

Here’s a site that might help.
http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-woodchuck-and-vs-beaver/

I hope somebody can clear this up for me.

Arthur has a bit of excitement

Arthur and I were hanging around the kitchen after breakfast this morning. Arthur was at his post by the side door monitoring the garden outside and I was still at the kitchen table when a little motion from outside near our deck caught my eye. I saw a little black nose attached to a small gray-brown head that was poking itself up through my deck railing right above the space where we’ve housed a family of groundhogs in the past.

Before I could react, the little critter, groundhog I think, made its way up onto our deck. That’s when Arthur noticed it too.

Then all heck broke loose. Arthur started barking. I ran for my camera which somehow rarely manages to be in the right room at the right time.

When I returned with camera in hand, the little critter was gone. I hurried into the adjacent laundry room, Arthur at my heels, but didn’t see anything from that window either. I didn’t see which way it went, and Arthur wasn’t talking.

“It’s gone,” I told Arthur.

A few minutes later the little wild critter came walking along the deck from the back of our house where Mark grows two tomato plants in pots. Need I say more?

The groundhog, I think, was taking its time sauntering back off the deck the way it had entered. That’s when I caught the photo and evidence of at least one of our produce thieves.

He walked down through the St. Francis garden and out into the woods. When he was out of Arthur’s boundaries and reach, I let the little dog, who could hardly contain himself, outside. Arthur did his thing of sniffing, finding a trail and nosing around for a few minutes while I investigated the tomato plants. I didn’t see any tomatoes, but that doesn’t mean much. Mark might have gotten them all earlier.

I heard a loud rustling sound and looked down by the creek where the ground hog was tearing across the bottom of the yard and then jumped down the creek bank. Arthur somehow may have rustled him out, although I don’t know how. Arthur was up by the back of the house and the groundhog was down by the creek. It might have been a diversionary tactic to get Arthur away from the nesting space under our deck.

Nature can be exciting.

Arthur agrees.

I am adding an addendum to this post to correct the identity of the wild animal pictured above. I have been informed that it looks like a baby beaver, and I have to agree. At the time I saw it, I didn’t think it looked exactly like a groundhog, but I wasn’t sure what else it could be. I was worried it might be a big rat, but it’s tail was too broad. The thought of a beaver never crossed my mind. You can see a diagram of a beaver in the link graciously provided by Teepee 12 in the comments below.

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In case you missed them, here are earlier posts about the groundhogs that sometimes share our abode.

Are groundhogs vicious—or is my nosy little dog safe?
I shot the groundhogs—twice
The groundhog saga continues
I saw a baby groundhog

I saw a baby groundhog

I see more things out of my kitchen window.

Yesterday I saw a baby groundhog in the woods, that Mark recently cleared of Honeysuckle, beside the perennial garden. This is the same place I saw the fawn a few days ago.

I think this is a baby for two reasons: it looked smaller than the other two I saw a few months ago, and it wasn’t very savvy. I opened the door and stepped out onto the deck to try to get a photo, and it didn’t run away. Unfortunately, Arthur came outside with me and knew something was up. He started sniffing around.

Here’s where the savvy part comes in. Instead of turning and running into the woods, which I have no doubt the adult groundhogs would have done, this cute little baby ran up the stone steps, straight for us, and dove through a hole in the latticework beside the steps and under our deck. He was goin’ home.

Now, Arthur has quick reflexes, but I don’t think his vision is 20/20. And he was a little slow on the uptake. By the time he figured out what was going on, that baby was past him and through the hole.

Drat! Foiled again.

But with the morning deer adventure, all and all, not a bad day for the little white dog.

Update 7:00 p.m.

He’s back!