Beaver great expectations

I am a great believer in shooting for the stars, but when I saw the fresh gnaw marks on this oak in the Henne nature reserve, I chuckled and thought of the line from Robert Browning about reach exceeding grasp. The would-be logger is, of course, a beaver, and while these amazing rodents can fell pretty large shrubs, this tree is at least a foot in diameter and looked to be about 50 feet high. With enough effort, the beaver could probably topple this oak, but then what? Even a squadron of beavers would be hard pressed to move the tree into position. This project will bear watching to see if the logger realized just how much his reach exceeded his grasp and went on to fell something more reasonable, or if his great expectations forced him to finish the job.