Strange encounter
On our Boxing Day Urban Nature Walk, we walked downstream from Ward's Pond and paused briefly at Willow Pond. There we came across these weird furry lumps--aquatic plants growing on logs in the water? Drowned animals? But there are so many.
In fact, there were thirteen in all. Thirteen dead muskrats. I have to guess that they were all trapped in a normally safe denning site that became flooded with the recent heavy rains. Sad and weird.