All wild creatures seem especially beautiful in the early morning light, like this cute little muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) that I spotted last week in one of the small ponds at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
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Benjamin is delighted with the Muskrat photo : “He’s so cute!” He is trying to figure out “what is the orange thing in the water that he is swimming to?” This is a wonderful capture of the muskrat and the pond water around him. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Thanks. If he can figure out what the orange this is, please have him tell me. At first I thought it was a soda can, but then I decided that it wasn’t.
Nice shot. I have never seen a Muskrat in the wild.
They are pretty cool to see. They hang out in the same kind of habitats as beavers. In fact, they look a bit alike, except the beavers are much, much bigger and have flat tails. Muskrats have rounded “rat tails.”
I love the rings in the water. It looks like he just popped up.
Thanks, Dan. The muskrat was already above the water when I spotted it and created the ripples with a subtle tilt of the head–it had been looking straight ahead.
It’s a beautiful shot.
[…] via Muskrat in early morning light — Mike Powell […]
Thank you for sharing your work with us. I see that you got the notice from WordPress. I wondered how that worked. I wish that I had your talent. Donna at Flittermouse.blog and Coffee With the Cat Lady…. I hope you don’t mind if I share more!!
Thanks for your kind words. You are welcome to share my posts and photos, though I would ask that you link the mention back to me. I really don’t think that I have any special talent, but I am pretty patient and persistent and like to spend a lot of time outdoors with my camera. I am always amazed by what I am able to see and to photograph.
Aww! Great pics don’t see them very often.
I don’t see them all that often myself, though the places I visit most often have quite a few muskrats, I think. A lot of the times that I do see them, they sense me first and dive underwater or swim away immediately. In this case I was able to observe the muskrat for a pretty good amount of time.
Nice catch! Wonderful image with the reflection, water color and ripples. My first thought on the red thing was a shotgun shell.
Yikes. I think you might be right about the shotgun shell. There was deer hunting in the wildlife refuge earlier this year and duck hunting just off shore and shotgun shells could have come from potentially either source.