Lydia asked -

>On the other side of the pond something happened that really spooked the
>ducks. A duck or coot suddenly went down in a flap and splash and all
>the other ducks quacked and flew to shore, quacking nervously. The
>muskrat continued its lazy swim.
>
>A few minutes later, the geese and ducks closer to where I was standing
>quacked and honked and flapped suddenly out of the water, and again the
>ducks quacked nervously on shore.
>
>Muskrats are harmless rodent type critters, but what the heck was the
>critter spooking and perhaps feeding on the ducks and coots? I never saw
>it......Snake? Turtle? Otter? Nessie?

I suspect that this muskrat has been raising Hell in his puddle and has the
other local critters spooked. "King Rats" as territorial males are often
called can be a nuisance in a small pond, trying to drive anything and
everything away from his territory. I first noticed this in Kelowna, BC many
years ago at Sutherland Hills Park. After a week or so of harassment, the
other critters in the pond would skitter out the muskrat's way even if it
didn't take a run at them.



---------------------------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca