Over the years I’ve spent hours exercising around Lake LaFarge where I’ve admired an occasional bald eagle, a profusion of ducks and Canada geese and even a few tortoise sunning themselves on logs, but I had yet to spot a beaver.

Gnawed trees displayed evidence of their presence and lately a beaver lodge, but the creature on the Canadian nickel had eluded me. That was until last week.

I stopped in my tracks. Finally, my first beaver sighting.