redbird | Pleasant news/phenology

On our way through the park this morning,

cattitude told me to back up, quietly. I did so, and he pointed.

It was the muskrat [1]. Sitting above the water, doing muskratty things. We watched him, he went about his business. After a minute or two, he slipped under the water, but not in the "I'm getting out of here" way that muskrats will when they've been seen. Swam under the surface for a moment, then resurfaced, and got onto a floating log. We watched for another minute, and when he slipped underwater again, walked on toward the subway.

[1] A muskrat (gender unknown, at least to me) lives in the salt marsh across the street from me [2]. He (arbitrary pronoun) has at least two dens, one of which is near the reedy area we were walking past. Mostly, we see him swimming for a moment just above the surface at twilight, then he senses us and dives for cover. A muskrat sighting is a rare and welcome thing. We know he's mated successfully at least once, because we saw the young, but since then we've only seen one muskrat at a time. I don't know, and don't feel like getting up to check right now, whether muskrats mate for life, or how long they live--we've just been assuming it's the same muskrat all along [3].

[2] Yes, I live across the street from a salt marsh. In Manhattan. The world is so full of a number of things.

[3] Saki, "The Unrest Cure."