It was a beautiful sunny day today, but since last night was cold and calm, I was met with wall to wall ice at the marsh once again. So, no ducks in sight, but it was a different story with the muskrats. When I started to walk toward the viewing stand, I noticed a good-sized muskrat lodge about ten feet to the left of the stand - with a muskrat on top! It was the first time I had seen a muskrat on around one of the lodges.
Turning to the right, where I usually see several muskrats, I wasn't disappointed - several were swimming around in a small open space next to the cattails, then, as I watched, five of them - count them - climbed out and huddled together. Muskrats are usually quite territorial, but when cold weather comes they know it makes sense to stick together - literally!
It seems as though every day I see more Hooded Mergansers at the marsh. Today I counted a group of 17 of what appeared to be juvenile females and males, as from a distance they all looked alike. It is nice to see so many of these birds here. There's a good chance they may winter over here, moving out to the river as soon as the marsh freezes over.
They are very wary birds, so it is difficult to get good shots of them without a telephoto lens. This shot, taken yesterday, shows four of them swimming away from me.
The next thing I spotted eating up a storm was a couple of Red Squirrels. I hadn't seen any for several days, but yesterday they were out chowing down on pine cones. I watched this fellow very deftly clean every scale off that cone, for all the world like someone eating corn on the cob. He would chew from one side to the other, then turn the cone a bit and repeat the process, occasionally turning it on end to chew there.
Yesterday was a banner day for wildlife sightings. Almost everything was busily filling their stomachs when I spotted them. The first thing I noticed was a couple of chickadees -- feeding on cattail heads! That was news to me, but apparently not unusual.
The muskrat youngsters were performing their hi-jinks this morning in their usual spot next to the entrance to the viewing stand. I heard splashing sounds even before I saw them. This little fellow sat for several minutes on his cattail perch before he became aware of me.
November's fickle weather dished up snow flurries today, so I enclosed my camera in a plastic bag when I made my daily trek to the marsh. I noticed a variety of ducks here and there - the usual buffleheads, some ring-necked ducks, 15 hooded mergansers, and about a dozen American Black Ducks, including these two males, seemingly unperturbed by the snow.
No ice left on the marsh this morning, but lots of rough water. A few buffleheads and ring-necked ducks were scattered about bobbing on the waves. High in a catkin-loaded gray birch alongside the trail was a flock of Common Redpolls busily feeding. They were a delight to watch, clinging to the slender, swaying branches as they plucked the seeds from the catkins.
Three Black Ducks had found a narrow strip of open water in the ice at the marsh this morning, two of which are shown here (watercolor filter applied). I checked the sewage lagoon to see what might be present there - about 30 black ducks took to the air when I got close. There were also a number of bufflehead ducks swimming about on the lagoon. In the inlet to the French Basin I spied one lone American coot.
This morning I came across a couple of the muskrats that were presumably from the group seen on Sunday. This shot shows one of them climbing up on the edge of the ice. Muskrats are able to take ice in stride. Even when the marsh is frozen solid, they create 'push-ups' in the ice, openings through which they push up chunks of cattails on which they feed.
