And now for something totally different...drumroll please

I probably haven't been out birding in Albuquerque for a couple of months as we were away for several weeks on vacation. Upon returning, I suffered some kind of chest injury which still hurts but is gradually improving. So, that prevented me from venturing out to take pictures. After parking at one of my favorite birding places yesterday, I strolled out into the forest and, for most of the two mile walk, nothing. Not one picture, which is pretty rare but it was quite overcast so getting a good picture would have been tough with less light. Approaching the parking lot, I stopped short and walked alongside the stream; a place that has been sort of a 'goldmine' recently for pictures. Sure enough, I took some really great photos of birds. I also took a few photographs of an animal I've only seen once before, in all the times I've been walking along side the streams or rivers in the bosque: a muskrat. The long tails on a muskrat are not covered with fur, but scales, as their tails are their main means of propulsion through the water. Muskrats can swim underwater for 12-17 minutes without surfacing for air, which explains why it's so hard to get a second picture of one. They live in families with their young in nests that are often burrowed in the river bank with an underwater entrance and feed on cattails and other small animals.





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