Saturday, December 15, 2007

Lake Waters have begun to Ebb

These pictures are from late Thursday evening… The Creek is within its banks now. Just mud remains.
Mom Cat Paisley and I observe this!
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Last night around 6 PM I was looking out the Nook window at the rising waters. Since the time of day is so dim in being able to see clearly, I looked again at what appeared to be a fast moving piece of wood coming into shore.
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You see when the river, creek or what ever is on the rise, all the debris is focused in the middle of the body of water. When the waters begin to subside the debris ends up on the shores.
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For today [this was Thursday eve] I re named our Creek Lake Dee… I rubbed my eyes; re cleaned my glasses and looked again. MERCY it was either a muskrat or a mink that was swimming on the waters edge, not a piece of hapless wood.
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So how to decide based upon this information!
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The muskrat or musquash (Ondatra zibethicus), the only species in genus Ondatra, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands and is a very successful animal over a wide range of climates and habitats. It plays an important role in nature and is a resource of food and fur for humans, as well as sometimes being a pest.
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Muskrat ***********
****************** "Chiefly aquatic; moves overland, especially in autumn....Builds house in shallow water; also burrows in banks; entrances usually underwater

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A mink is any of several furry, dark-colored, semi-aquatic, carnivorous mammals of the family Mustelidae, which also includes the weasels and the otters. It is naturally found in North America, northern Europe, and most of Russia west of Ural Mountains MINK Another SITE: American Mink
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The mink has a long, sleek body about two feet long. It has short, stubby legs; a long neck; small ears and eyes and a long, thick tail. In fact, one third of the mink's length is its tail!
The mink digs its den in riverbanks or it finds a hollow log or an abandoned beaver or muskrat den. It never uses the same den for long.
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So I am back to square ONE…I need to see the critter again because as I see it, it could have been either one.
The stakes to hold the target for sighting purposes
GONE My Apple Tree Root Seat to observe flora and fauna GONE
a different SKIRT for a Christmas Tree

5 comments:

Julie said...

Wow that's some rain you had there! Glad it's going down but I'm sorry you lost your seat. Your cat looks gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

How much rain did you guys get? We got all snow all day today and then rain on top of it. More snow tomorrow.

It looks like you had a flood.

DeeMom said...

Abraham to date these are the amounts, give or take a couple of days here and there

Call it saturation ;)
Rain on December 9 1.05
13 2.55
15 0.26

So far today 16 0.27

They are calling for
LERTS
46 now
precip 70%.
tonight Chance of snow 90%. 1 to 2 inches of snow expected. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
;)

Julie when the mud is NOT mud we might find the log further down our Creek bank...

The cat is the new Mom cat we got about a month ago... she is a sweetie adn has begun to talk to me, like I want more water, it is time to eat, PLEASE pet me...etc

Tom said...

Hi 'D'
Glad you saw my post today, Peter's Mink is a bit of a rarity around here.
I hope your weather drop just whats needed, then settles itself down to a nice covering of snow over Christmas for you.

Coy Hill said...

And nearly all that rain missed us!
We did get about an inch of sleet last night and some rain this morning but nothing to get the creeks up.

Maybe you'll get luck next time and get a pic of the creature, I've never photographed either a mink or a muskrat although I caught quite a few of each in traps back in my younger days.