a beaver in the mill race alongside the Brandywine River
I was out walking in Brandywine Park in Wilmington, Delaware just after sun up this morning. Brandywine Park is a city park maintained by the state of Delaware. You can tell this is an urban photograph because the reflection in the upper portion of the photo is from the Wilmington Hospital just across the road from the park.
A neighbor's dogs spooked this beaver and into the mill race he dove. The mill race has sides that stick up about a foot from the water's surface, so it's difficult for critters to get out once they're in. This fellow just kept swimming and looking for a place to get out, but without success. We once had a deer in the same predicament and the water department had to drain the mill race to get him out.
It was exciting to finally get a photograph of the beaver, which is rarely seen in daylight. This shot is noisy because I took it with a point-and-shoot on 4x zoom and then I zoomed in on that image with Photoshop and then took a screen shot of that image and then de-noised that jpeg a little with Photoshop.
If you research the beaver pelt count taken in this region by trappers in the 1600s you'll discover that beavers were once very plentiful here. Beavers are returning to the Brandywine, and so are birds of prey, like the Great Blue Heron, the Merganser, Osprey, Black Capped Night Heron, Green Heron, Cormorant, and even the Bald Eagle. I have photographed all these species on the river in the last decade, except for the Green Heron, which was very furtive. The increase in birds of prey tells me that the river is getting cleaner, thanks no doubt to anti-polluntion legislation and soil conservation measures that began in the 1950s.
a beaver in the mill race alongside the Brandywine River
I was out walking in Brandywine Park in Wilmington, Delaware just after sun up this morning. Brandywine Park is a city park maintained by the state of Delaware. You can tell this is an urban photograph because the reflection in the upper portion of the photo is from the Wilmington Hospital just across the road from the park.
A neighbor's dogs spooked this beaver and into the mill race he dove. The mill race has sides that stick up about a foot from the water's surface, so it's difficult for critters to get out once they're in. This fellow just kept swimming and looking for a place to get out, but without success. We once had a deer in the same predicament and the water department had to drain the mill race to get him out.
It was exciting to finally get a photograph of the beaver, which is rarely seen in daylight. This shot is noisy because I took it with a point-and-shoot on 4x zoom and then I zoomed in on that image with Photoshop and then took a screen shot of that image and then de-noised that jpeg a little with Photoshop.
If you research the beaver pelt count taken in this region by trappers in the 1600s you'll discover that beavers were once very plentiful here. Beavers are returning to the Brandywine, and so are birds of prey, like the Great Blue Heron, the Merganser, Osprey, Black Capped Night Heron, Green Heron, Cormorant, and even the Bald Eagle. I have photographed all these species on the river in the last decade, except for the Green Heron, which was very furtive. The increase in birds of prey tells me that the river is getting cleaner, thanks no doubt to anti-polluntion legislation and soil conservation measures that began in the 1950s.