I decided to take this walk to try an explore an area I was somewhat familiar with. This year we had a lot of rain all the way up into the fall. Formerly marshy areas like this one in a pasture are still flooded with water even in December. I was interested in just seeing what I could find.
I've seen ducks swimming there this year, unlike last. What is hard to notice in the picture is that there are banks on either side making it more of ravine. There is a strip of vegetation around the edges and a corn field nearby.
It's amazing how many times I crossed this point where on one end the flooded area slowly drains across and out, never dreaming a muskrat lodge might be some twenty feet away!
This is more of what the habitat looks like up closer. Lots of reeds and plants growing out of the water on the end nearest the mud patch. More than the picture was able to capture.
Lots of cattails on the other long end which are some of foods the muskrats like to eat. These cattails slowly proceed toward someone else pond. I found another possible muskrat lodge which I didn't capture on film.
This looks like just another heap of material from a distance.
On closer inspection, "the hump of materials" takes on a new look. It does not seem to me to be randomly fallen together, but " looks constructed". I can see dirt mixed in with the original materials. Probably stands about three feet tall. I know that muskrats need at least three feet of water to over winter since they don't hibernate. There was no way for me to get close enough to this lodge type area due to the "swampy" nature of the surroundings near the possible lodge. I wasn't able to actually measure the depth of the water. It sure looked like it could be a muskrat lodge.
I tried to confirm my findings by looking around the edges of the ravine for possible muskrat sign. But all I found was this deer skull. Which I flipped over.
No comments:
Post a Comment