Little Waumandee Creek runs through our land.  It’s a narrow creek, surrounded by a large wetland.  It’s fed by numerous springs, so it stays open all year.

5/26/2021  Here’s a drone photo of the creek east of the driveway

5/26/2021   More of the creek – on both sides of the driveway – from the drone, looking north into Center Valley with our house at the end.

10/11/2004   A view from Sumac Prairie

4/20/2009  A bit of spring flooding

11/4/2016

4/7/2017

1/7/2017

5/6/2005  An old photo of the edges of the creek north of the driveway culvert.  We’re not sure why they were so bare – it may be that we’d just removed a long-standing beaver dam.  The banks of the creek are much more overgrown now.

A couple of views of the creek from the drone

9/27/2015

5/2/2016

5/21/2013   One of the springs that feeds into the creek – with Marsh Marigolds and sedges

8/8/2009   The springs find their way into the creek through deep, narrow channels.

The creek floods during the spring snow melt, and sometimes after a heavy storm.

4/4/2013   This flood is caused by melting snow.

We’ve had two flash floods caused by big summer storms.

This one was in 2010.

8/13/2010

8/13/2010  The creek swept away part of our driveway, made several new channels, and was at least four times as wide as usual for several hours.

8/13/2010   View of the flood from above

We had another, even bigger, flood in 2016.  About half the valley was under water.

8/11/2016

8/11/2016

8/11/2016   The aftermath of the flood – our washed out driveway.

There are beavers living here, and we have quite a few dams along our stretch of the creek.

We had one just north of the culvert that goes under our driveway for a several years.

10/21/2015

In 2017 the beavers reinforced and enlarged the dam so that it created a large lake behind it.

4/15/2017 Beaver Lake

4/14/2017  And they built a lodge in the lake.

We loved the lake – we saw lots of wildlife there including ducks, beavers, and muskrats.

4/8/2017  Beaver in Beaver Lake

But the lake threatened our driveway.  Every time it rained, the water would spill over the driveway and wash the gravel away.  So we took out the dam, and now the beavers have moved their operations to another spot along the creek.

Farther south from our driveway is a bend in the creek lined by old willow trees.  We call it Willow Bend.  The banks are mostly covered with invasives – Reed Canary Grass and Wild Parsnip – but there are usually a few small beaver dams here,  places where the creek runs over rocks, and others where it collects in quiet pools.

8/13/2006  Willow Bend – a pool behind a beaver dam

7/2/2017  Willow Bend – a small rapids

Our goal for the creek – as for the rest of our property – is to restore native habitat with as much diversity as possible.  We’re working to retain and enhance the native vegetation along the creek banks, and remove the invasives.

One of the most fun parts of having a creek is seeing the animals that use it.  In addition to beavers we’ve seen minks, muskrats, raccoons, river otters, bobcats, bears, and deer, as well as several species of ducks, herons, eagles, kingfishers, and songbirds.

A few years ago we put up a trail camera aimed at one of the beaver dams in the creek.  Here are the best of the photos we’ve gotten.

Click on a photo to see a larger version.