The Muskrat

A Muskrat, feeding
charcoal pencil
10 March 2013

Sunday morning: I'm still rubbing the sleep-sand from my eyes. It's daylight savings today and we've all lost an extra hour of sleep. But I've slipped down to the river to see how things are after the heavy snow we had on Friday.

I see a black shape on a shelf of ice in the river above the dam and can't make out what it is. It could be a piece of driftwood …or a piece of muskrat-shaped driftwood. I imagine that it is a actual muskrat but I can't confirm this by sight; it's too far away. As I concentrate on getting out a pencil and opening my sketchbook, the black shape disappears which means only one thing: it is a muskrat-shaped real muskrat! Just my luck; it's being shy and I can't draw it. But it soon reappears in the same spot. It has carried a bit of plant matter (muck!) up from the river bed to eat. It does this a few more times while I draw until my fingers become numb.

Spring is happening. The river is full to the brim with meltwater and snow. This morning I saw some unidentifiable ducks far away, several flights of geese, songbirds, starlings and an American Kestrel (…or a sharp-shinned hawk). Opossums have been busy and some have been unlucky as they cross the thoroughfares. A friend has heard amorous owls hooting at night in the tall trees near his house.

It's impossible to stop this tilting planet. Impossible to stop Spring and imagine that Winter will never end. What a silly sentiment. The climate is changing but here at least, we will always have seasons.

The South Natick Dam
crayon
11 March 2013

Did I just see that?

The park above the dam
09-01-11
© 2011 Rob Dunlavey

While drawing this view of the dam and the bridge I saw, I think, something quite extraordinary. Or not!

The water above the dam was as smooth as a mirror in the early morning sunlight. I was laboring to draw the reflections of the trees. I don't like to do this. Anyway, I see some ripples in the water near the retaining wall to my right. Soon I see the source of the disturbance: a muskrat has begun cruising along the edge looking for whatever it is muskrats focus on. I remain still and soon the muskrat has swum in front of me and along the wall and into the vegetation you see in this drawing. It's very busy but after a while it swims out into the still water just above the dam.

Five days ago, Hurricane Irene dumped a lot of rain in New England and the river is high. I lost sight of the muskrat as it swam above the dam. Just then, I see a friend and get distracted greeting him and chatting. But this is just chit-chat; only 2-3 minutes have elapsed when I see a large shape on a rock in the distance that is just below the bridge's arch in the upper left corner of the drawing. I thought it might be the heron but then it slides into the water and disappears. It sure looked like a muskrat…

Well…?  Did it swim over the top of the dam, through the boiling hydraulic, past the island and up to that convenient rock?

No way!  But… I wonder.