Muskrat Wedding?

This was one of the strangest things I’ve observed in a while.

I was sitting at our pond trying to locate the Green Heron that I saw fly over the water as I was entering the area. While searching the far bank for said heron, I saw something large swimming on the surface going South. It was sitting so low in the water I could not distinguish what it was. However, I figured it was my favorite buddy Muskrat that I find very endearing so I snapped a few shots.

Refocusing on the original search, I found the heron way across the pond and attempted to capture its image albeit it was really tiny in the view finder and all I was going on was the little bit of blue against the green and brown plants. Amazingly, I caught it slurping a fish it had caught.

Suddenly, I noticed some serious movement on the surface of the water, again. It was swimming quite quickly and I had no idea what I was seeing. My old eyes couldn’t figure it out in the very late sun glare.

When I downloaded the pics and figured out what it was, I almost peed my pants and I did let out an audible laugh, even while I was all alone in my office. The Muskrat had gathered what looked like a wedding bouquet of flowers and was heading North with his floral arrangement.

He eventually made it to the bank on the other side of the pond and disappeared into some weeds at the water’s edge. What a curious event!

If you were not aware, “Muskrat Love” is an offbeat song about a romance between two – you guessed it – muskrats. It was written by American folk musician Willis Alan Ramsey and released on his only album in 1972. Captain & Tennille recorded “Muskrat Love” for their 1976 album release Song of Joy.