June 20 – My Nature Journal

Muskrat

Ondatra zibethicus

I catch fleeting glimpses of Muskrats fairly often on my nature walks but today is the first time I’ve ever been able to get photographs of one. Most of the time, they dive under the surface or disappear into their dens too quickly for me to react. Until today, Muskrats have left me with nothing other than a strange mix of pleasure and frustration.

But today was different. This Muskrat was one of a pair that I didn’t even realize were on the left side of a narrow channel of water that drains a beaver pond. As per usual, the first Muskrat zipped across the yard-wide length of water and vanished into the right-hand bank before I lift my camera.

Luckily for me, the second of the pair took off into the water to follow just a split second after the first. The Muskrat moved incredibly fast but I was just fast enough to snap these shots; no time to adjust settings or anything crazy like that.

In what felt like a blink of the eye, this Muskrat too disappeared completely into the bank.

The Muskrats left no hint of their presence after the ripples formed by their swim settled down. All that remained were these two from-the-hip photographs and my pleasure in finally, FINALLY catching the image of one of these elusive little mammals on my sensor.

Eastern Box Turtle

Terrapene carolina carolina

Common Watersnake

Nerodia sipedon

Catfish

Family Ictaluridae