BLUEBIRDS AND MUSKRATS

The bluebirds returned this morning and were enjoying the mealworms.  YAY!  I hope they stay the rest of the winter!  Today there were two males and two females.  

Yesterday afternoon, there were five muskrats on a log in a small water opening near shore.  They were eating something, but I couldn't see them well enough to see if it was plant or shellfish type food.  Fun to watch them, though!  There was one (look near the branch in the rear of the first picture) who was in the far pool and kept making a thunking splash, a lot like a beaver's tail thwack, and scared all the others into diving.  

AH!  I can see them sitting on the log again today.  It is hard that my workspace looks out onto the pond and birds...  Difficult to maintain focus on the work sometimes!  :-)  Tough life.

Look carefully, there are 4 in this picture; one is at the top in the far pool.

You can see the rattish tail in the closest one.

What a face!  Cute.

 

RESEARCH - MUSKRATS

I really don't know much about the muskrats, so I decided to spend some time researching the info I can find.  Here's some of the random interesting information I located.  (I've created a list of muskrat, otter, etc. websites below, right.)

INFO THAT I HAVE GLEANED FROM WATCHING OUR CRITTERS & FROM EARLIER READING:

• Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are marsh animals, rodents, herbivores (although they will eat some clams/mussels and fish). 
• They have rodent type teeth (think rabbit or mouse or guinea pig)
• The Native Americans called them, musquash.
• They live in dens on the shore of the pond or lake and often will make a small lodge out of vegetation, smaller than a beaver lodge.  Sometimes they will take over old beaver lodges.  
• Muskrats are often hunted for their pelts.  
• They eat "clean" food and make a good dinner. Their meat is often sold as "marsh rabbit".  
• They swim really fast and leave a wake!  They propel themselves with their huge back feet and their tails.  Sometimes the tail comes up out of the water, but often you can't see it.  The water in front of the muskrat's muzzle is often churned up and looks silvery and as if the animal is carrying something.  
• They can carry large chunks of vegetation, like the water chestnuts I have seen, and long grasses.

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From a Cleveland  Museum of Natural History flier called, "Muskrat's Lodge" www.cmnh.org/site/Files/SRCenter/Muskrat.pdf, comes the following info:

Muskrat: Muskrats (Ondatra zibethica) are excellent swimmers, spending their entire life near water. They are closely related to the small mouse-like voles, but are much larger. They average a length of l8-26 inches, including their 10-inch long, slightly flattened, rat-like tail. Typically, they weigh two to four pounds when fully grown. Natural enemies of the Muskrat include the mink, birds of prey, wolf, coyote and fox.

(According to the Wikipedia article,  young muskrats are also prey for otters and snapping turtles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat)

  Muskrat’s Habitat & Range: The muskrat creates its lodge or burrow in the shallow water of ponds or lakes and also in hollows in the banks of streams and rivers.  Cattail stalk chips and leaves are mixed with mud to help bind the walls and the dome of its lodge together.  The home is secured against enemies by having the entrance below the water surface, with the dome projecting two to three feet above the water level. Hawks, owls, eagles, wolves and coyotes are, therefore, unlikely to capture the Muskrat its young while inside its lodge.

Muskrats flourish throughout the USA and Canada; only the very southernmost areas of this country are without this animal.

Muskrat’s Diet & Nesting: The roots and stalks of cattails are the Muskrat’s principal food source. They also eat fish, clams and other swamp plants.
A pair of Muskrats produce several litters of young each season. Each brood varies in number from two to nine.

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A really interesting page about muskrats comes from Bob Arnebeck 
http://bobarnebeck.com/muskrats.htm
Some of the things that struck me as interesting [stuff in brackets are my comments]: 

• When you see clam shells neatly opened on the shore, it was probably a muskrat that ate it.  Beavers and otters are less patient and break the shells.  [We have clam shells like that on our pond landing!]
• [Hmmm... I'm also learning that beavers are more active at night.  Perhaps that is what we are hearing when sitting on the porch in the dark pre-dawn.]
• Speaking of sounds, "Muskrats make an eerie whistling sound when they are stalking each other."  And, like a beaver, it can use its tail to make a splashing noise when it dives.  [I haven't seen that. When diving, I've only seen a smooth entry.]
• "Where I live along the St. Lawrence River, wildlife biologists have been talking about how essential muskrats are in controlling the spread of cattails. Like much scientific argument in our day this one involves the complex interplay of water levels, fish spawning and muskrat proliferation. In my experience, cattails are not the favorite food of muskrats, nor have I observed them limiting their spread. That said, though they might not be essential in righting bad things humans have done to the environment, like the oversilting of river banks from run off than can favor cattail proliferation, the muskrat does its part in keeping ponds and river banks from getting choked with plants"   [I should email him and ask if he has ever seen them eating water chestnuts!]

Mr. Arnebeck also has pictures comparing muskrats, beaver, otter and mink on his otter page:
http://bobarnebeck.com/otters/index.html

======= "...Muskrats can 'eat out' a marsh area... They are reported to eat up to one-third of their weight per day and destroy much more vegetation than they eat."  Hmmm... how does this relate to our family who are eating water chestnuts!
http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/techrpt/84-09.pdf

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I'm talking a lot about water chestnuts in these blogs.  Some of you may not really know which plant they are; I didn't know until about 2 years ago.  You can find a great picture of the plant, flower and seed at: 
http://www.massnature.com/Plants/Herbs/waterchestnut.htm

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What else do you know or have you seen?  Any other websites to add to the list?
Let me know. Tomorrow's blog will have more about water chestnuts.

MUSKRAT WITH WATER CHESTNUT, HARVESTER VIDEO

Monday, October 1, 2012 

     Three times, now, I’ve seen a muskrat bringing home a water chestnut plant!

I’ve zoomed in on my picture, so it is a bit fuzzy, but if you look carefully, you will see there is brown under that plant!  Now if we can just convince them that the spring plants are tender and delicious…

They were busy this morning – back and forth, back and forth, but I only saw the one bringing home anything.  Wonder if they chew it up and carry it in their mouths?  Looking at them swim, it looks like they have something, but it turns out to be just the water roiling up in front of them.  Mostly they go one at a time.  Today, one went out and was over there a LONG time messing in what is left of the water chestnuts.  A second one went over and very shortly both came back.  Hmmm.  ("Junior, you get home right this very minute!!")  This picture shows both of them.

Lots of hawk calling today; there were more than one of them around.  I was looking for the hawk on the north side of the pond when one called from right behind me!  But up close, this does not look like a red-tail!  Any thoughts?  Immature? 

As you know, and as you can see in the opening picture of the video below, we have had a very green pond; the water chestnuts have been a REAL problem this year.  By May, it wasn't much fun paddling, and in June, I couldn't get through them without a great deal of work! Thankfully, by this time of year (autumn), the paddling is good again because the plants are starting to die off and drop to the bottom of the pond (and of course, the muskrats have been busy!).  However, any seeds that were on the plants have fallen off and been nicely planted to grow next year.

Ann Kirk organized a community pull to start working on the problem.  (Follow the link for the Town Crier article and pictures of the event.)  We had over three dozen people helping out and many boats out on the water.  But, alas, all our work barely made a dent.

The harvester that was contracted for Carding Mill Pond wasn't needed there, so was brought in to Stearns Mill Pond. It accomplished a lot at the dam end of the pond, but couldn’t get very far down here in the center and at the up stream end – too shallow.  The plan for next year is to try to raise the dam for a while so the harvester can get further in and then do the community pull after the harvester finishes so that we can clear out the invasive weeds that the machine can't get.  Here is a short video of the harvester at work.  Pretty cool!  (Thanks, Ann!)

July 12, 2012

 

 So, what have you seen and experienced on our pond?  Leave a comment about your experiences.