Show me the beaver!

The beaver is back in Belgium, or so they say. So far I have seen a lot of gn awed trees, a lot of floating pieces of bark but no beaver.
So, what is this blog entry about? That I haven't seen a living beaver, yet. On the right is a map of the Nete a few hundred meters downriver of the watermill in Retie. A lot of beaver tracks here. It will be interesting to see what will happen later this year as this piece of the river is part of a very busy commercial kayak route. As there are some old meanders and a lot of small ponds nearby, the beavers have a lot of space to roam.

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So I sit pondering the fate of the beaver while floating downstream under a little iron bridge in the middle of a small forest. I've paddled maybe 50 times under this bridge but this is the first time I decided to stop here. Like most rivers in Belgium it too has been straightened in the past but it is still trying to be a proper piece of nature. Hopefully the coming of the beaver is a start of a new natural chapter. I am enthusiastically awaiting my first glimps of these big rodents. Hopefully I can show you a picture one of these days.