Furry Swimmer!

After I finished some work assignments this afternoon I drove over to Lincoln Lake, because it was really nearby. This is the same lake where Ellen and I saw the mergansers, but about a mile farther east. I was hoping to get some more duck pictures. All I could see at first were several of the large mute swans, and some ducks way too far away for pictures.

Then, I saw...



...a furry swimmer! Oooh, I knew this was going to be good. I already had an idea of what I was seeing, but I had to be sure, so I ran to the observation dock while the swimmer kept... swimming, fast.



What are my choices? Around here, there are three good possibilities: muskrat, otter, beaver, listed by size from smallest to largest. I don't see muskrats very often, but they are quite common. Beavers are coming back with a vengeance, but this isn't the right kind of place for them. They like streams they can dam up, not large established lakes. I was hoping it was an otter. And, it was not an idle hope because I'd seen otters on Lincoln Lake before, but quite a long time ago.



It swam right between those two swans! One of them pecked at it, but I didn't get a picture of that. After that, the swans just watched it. But what is it?



It's an otter! I already knew it wasn't a beaver (too small). I already knew it wasn't a muskrat (too richly brown- muskrat fur isn't as good-looking, and the head is too round). But then I saw the tail, and that clinched it. Muskrats have naked tails like a big rat. Beavers, of course, have that famous broad, flat tail. Otters have round, furred tails, and this one politely showed his/hers off for us. It looks skinny because the water has plastered down the fur, but it's clearly not rat-ish.

Saw other interesting things today too, but this was the best, and I got some pictures, although a really good otter picture is still elusive. Gives me something to strive for!

See Ellen and Joan's Urban Walk