Busy Beavers - Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB

2020 - July - 11 (sundown)

I entered Fish Creek Provincial Park after 9:30 pm hoping for a good sunset picture. The clouds were looking like they might be just right for such an opportunity while I was driving there. The sun was already down at this point as the park is down in a little bit of a valley. As I was walking along the footpath, on my way to the best part of the pond to set up for the potential sunset shot, a small tree flopped down across the path in front of me. Sure enough as got just a bit closer I could make out the figure of a beaver in the tall grass at the base of where the tree came from. He quickly came out of the grass, clamped onto the tree trunk with his mouth, and started dragging it towards the water. I put my backpack down on the ground, quickly fumbled for my camera inside..didn't even have time to change the settings as I didn't want to miss getting some shots of what I was seeing. So I just started shooting away. There were two other beavers in the area..one of which was quick to assist with the harvest once it was in the water. After a couple of minutes I took the time to switch over to the long lens for some real close ups. I picked out some of the better ones to put on the website for you to view. None of the pictures turned out all that great as the lighting was very dim by this time, so they are quite grainy (noisy). Still glad I got them though..was worth the total onslaught of mosquitoes I endured throughout. I don't think I've ever had fifty plus of them all trying to get me at once before..maybe one other time earlier this year in a different part of the park. Oh, turned out, the sunset I had originally went to the park for in the first place, didn't really develop onto anything all that special anyway.