Beaver experts?

Hey guys, I scouted a spot yesterday for beaver, one that had absolutely no sign 3 weeks ago. There’s no feed bed, no fresh cuttings, slides, etc. I almost walked away, but I noticed it looked like an old dam had been slightly patched. I looked closer at the house, and there was some fresh mud and sticks added to it. I found a couple peeled sticks that looked to be a couple weeks old. What do you think of this? I’ve ran into situations where there wasn’t much sign, but this is basically no sign at all. One lone bachelor beaver or none at all? There is a river nearby. Here’s a picture of the dam. Some bubbles and broken ice, but there’s lots of muskrats and geese in this pond. Thanks!!

Thats a funny looking beaver dam.

if the house has fresh mud...I would say ...theres one there....mayke a bait/castor set..catch him when he crawls out....could be a bachelor beaver there..they can be easy

Yep, it is. I don’t know why they bother. at most, there is a trickle flowing out of the pond when the dam is broken. They built that last spring, I trapped 2 out of that pond and specifically left one to trap the following year. It must have packed up and moved though. When I checked 3 weeks ago, there wasn’t any sticks there.Maybe it came back?

Beaver will instinctually be attracted to running/splashing water sounds. I've even seen them try to plug water level control pipes on manmade ponds. As someone said its a bachelor beaver

With the river nearby, beaver may wander into here at times. Also, when beaver get flooded out of the main river, they will move into places like this for a short while until the water level drops.

They don't react to all water, running, splashing noise. Thats a partial truth.

When there are Heavy rains , the water is making lots of noise overflowing dams in various overflows. Beaver don't raise the Dam then, they let it stabilize or their bankhole lodges or mud stick Lodges would flood out.

They will plug a dam break when they need the water.

Thats what I thought