Local Fauna

[akirlu]

Spotted this guy just next to the footbridge over the creek as I walked down to the train this morning. I'm pretty sure he must be a muskrat, though I don't think I've ever seen one before, and certainly not this close. He was kind enough to ignore me for long enough to grab my camera out of my bag, fiddle with the white balance, and snap one blurry shot, but as I was trying to refocus and get a better angle he looked right up at me then dove into the water and disappeared.



I really love having that footbridge over the creek. It's such a rural touch. I feel so much more connected to the neighborhood, and to the natural world, because of it. The fact that there's a footbridge but none for cars lets me take the peaceful back streets through the neighborhood to or from the train, rather than having to walk down the noisy arterial one block over, where all the traffic goes. I get to admire my neighbors' gardens and the stately progress of the seasons there. Sometimes I meet a neighbor, walking dogs or taking a constitutional, and sometimes I meet one of the neighborhood cats. And the creek is almost always interesting in itself. In early spring the plums bloom beside it, and later there are buttercups. Frogs sing there at night, though I haven't ever seen them. Most times there are ducks, and each year I see the progress of a couple of clutches of new babies. Sometimes if I'm lucky I'll spot the tiny wild woodland rabbits, rarely a heron though not this year, and lately most days I see the guinea hen, too. (No, the zoo won't take her. If I can find her reliably I may try getting her to a local organic farmer who also keeps chickens...) The sense that wildness is still there just down the street is wonderfully homelike, to me. It reminds me of living in Sweden, a little.

Comments

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

How lovely to have a place like that nearby.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I think so! And I would probably never wander down there if it weren't for the fact that the bridge is there and so makes it a quieter walk to and from the train station downtown. From the main road you don't really notice the creek -- it flows in and out of corrugated conduits to pass under the arterial roads, and on the one side it's tucked between a Wendy's and a dry cleaners, and on the other end it flows past the far end of the Middle School athletic field. It's really easy to miss. But because it connects two 'dead end' streets, traffic also mostly gives it the go by.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Don't think I've ever seen one of those, whatever it is. The images for muskrats on Google Image have blunter noses, or so it seems at first blush.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, a real muskrat! I've never seen one. How lucky for you. Your walk sounds lovely.