Brandon Township (Michigan) beaver habitat.  November 7, 2011
all photos by Jonathan Schechter

It was noon Monday.  I was on my way home when I detoured to a local creek to see what the
 beavers were up to. It was their 'branch brunch' time and they should have been hard at work
preparing for winter. As soon as I walked to  the creek bank I only caught a glimpse of one
swimming around a bend.

I  relate to these flat-tailed critters.  They get distracted as easily as I do.
  And some of their freshly cut trees had lodged in the limbs of nearby trees making the target of
 their quest inaccessible.
Their  work shows another trait I share with them: scattered and compulsive behavior.
Unfinished tree projects scattered the banks of the slow flowing creek. Wood chips littered the
 moist earth. And a dozen stripped tiny limbs floating in the water told me not all tree limbs were
 being stashed away for winter.
I related to that too.
 I smiled and walked on.
 The first snow fell before dawn today. In another month ice will coat the creek and I'll be starting
 one project, and then jumping to another, with the first project left  hanging in the trees of my mind.
Got a feeling that beaver work behavior and the psychology behind our actions is not far apart. 
But I like a good salad or well done rib-eye steak better than inner tree bark.