In my last posting, there were photos of what might have been a muskrat or maybe a beaver—this time I know it is a muskrat, because I can see its skinny tail.
I watched as this muskrat ferried back supplies of what I assume is food from the cattail field to the area where he lives. I was standing on a boardwalk and was able to photograph him from above as he swam right toward me. Because of the size of the stalk he was carrying, he swam mostly above water, rather than swimming under water as he normally does.
Once he got closer to me, he dove and I lost sight of him.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Very interesting capture .
Nice shots of another rarely seen critter.
He sure looks as busy as a beaver, even though he’s a muskrat. 🙂
Absolutely. I actually saw more activity from these little guys than from the beavers. It was really pretty cool to watch, because some of the time I could see them swimming under the relatively thin layer of ice. Like the beavers, the muskrats don’t hibernate or anything, so that have to worry about getting food every day (although I think they can stockpile a bit for really bad days).
maybe he’s nest building?
That’s a possibility, though I would hope that at this time of the year he already has a nest and is just doing renovations. I don’t know enough about muskrats to be able to identify food from building supplies.