Brian Edwards was driving to work along Onion Lake Road in Thunder Bay, Ont., one morning in May when he saw something that made him question if he’d had enough coffee before leaving the house.
“It’s a beaver pond,” he explained, “so kind of a swampy area, [a] beaver house, so mud, sticks — and a grey satellite dish sitting on top.”
After a moment’s thought, Edwards decided it made perfect sense: The NHL was planning its comeback after a lengthy pause brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clearly this beaver was a hockey fan. It needed a solid sports TV package to see all the games, Edwards said.
“I’m just expecting to see that beaver adjusting the dish one morning to see if he can get better reception or something,” he added, laughing.
The well-appointed beaver lodge that Edwards saw is on the outskirts of Thunder Bay, but the internet is awash in photos of similar installations in southern Saskatchewan, coastal Newfoundland, Montreal, Snow Lake, Man., Timmins, Bancroft and Kaladar, Ont., among other places.
In northwestern Ontario, satellite dishes have been spotted atop beaver lodges near Red Lake and Rainy River First Nation.
The question is: how, and why?