Holnicote Estate Beaver Lodge

The camera looks across a quiet pond on the Holnicote Estate, where a beaver lodge sits among reeds and low banks. Bare branches, grasses and still water fill most of the view, with the wooded slopes of Exmoor behind. The lodge itself, a mound of mud and cut branches, is the landmark that makes this spot easy to recognise.

Beavers are most active around dusk and through the night, so the pond is often liveliest in the evening and early morning. Spring and summer bring fresh green growth and more movement in the water, while autumn shows the animals gathering branches. Rain and wind change the surface of the pond and the sounds around it.

Holnicote is a large estate on the edge of Exmoor in Somerset, managed with woods, streams and farmland. Beavers were returned to a fenced area here as part of work on wetland habitats, and the pond they created has become a small haven for other wildlife. Visitors walk the estate paths and watch for birds and insects along the water.