I’ll be honest with you … the jury is still out with me about whether this is actually a beaver dam in the Roanoke River.  Is it possible that this is just a collection of detritus?

One or two of my Southern friends have assured me that it indeed looks like a dam.  But I’m not sure if they’re messing with me or not.

I know I saw movement down there that one night in May when I passed over it on the bridge.  But it was dark.

And I realized earlier tonight that I could have been seeing another group of animals entirely.  After I took the pictures you see below, I passed over that bridge yet again, and  I got excited when I saw a critter down there.  I grabbed my phone and started shooting video … until I recognized the distinctive striped tail of a raccoon.  Little masked bandit had me fooled.  He even saw me looming after him, and shot me what looked like an embarrassed look before scampering off.