Dam Visitor!

I was tacking around the edge of my pond, trying to get a better look at a female hooded Merganser that was swimming around (a rare visitor to such a small pond as mine), when I spotted an old stump that had been gouged dozens of times by a pileated woodpecker. As I stumbled through the saplings trying to reach the stump, a ball of brown fur stumbled from the shoreline ten feet away and splooshed down into the pond. I instinctively grabbed my camera out of my pocket, turned it on, ran to an open piece of shoreline, and waited for the thing to resurface. I followed the bubbles as they made a loop in the water, and then this beaver showed his face!
He glared at me, and slowly swam his way back along the shoreline. I subsequently stalked the shoreline, where I noticed several trees that had been "girdled" by this rolly-polly gnawer. He is most likely in transit, a yearling without a pond to call his own yet, and he is probably already on his way to greater waters. Although, if he does choose to stay, he is a most welcome visitor...as long as he doesn't take offense to the chicken wire that we put up around those trees nearest to our house.