Milly, Molly and Mick Rat, of the Perth Pond Pilers!!!

Yam, a blog buddy in Dunoon, Scotland, suggested the names! I only spotted one, however. With their short shelf life, the others could be gone. We had a fox nearby the other day. It's hard to say.
However, we have at least one. No cats accompanied me this day. As I walked towards the pond, I could spot an open spot in the middle. The videos are in this post. It was comical watching him dive, get some food, come back up on the ice to eat.
The ice is very thin, I could see his brown body under the ice. You can see it in the video.

From here I could see the open hole,
and the waters moving as Mick disappeared.
The leaves are noisy as I walk.
They can hear me coming.

The pond is frozen over, for the most part.
These small holes were thawing in the 2 C. weather.

Dummy me - this wasn't wide enough to cover me!
I stood there, my arm started to go to sleep!

Hiding behind a larger group of trees,
I stuck the videocam around the side.
On the left is the open hole.

Milly, Molly and Mick Rat; the videos

Muskrat on the pond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Muskrat on the pond. I tiptoed down. Hid behind a tree. It was too small. I hid behind a group of trees! My arm fell asleep, and my feet were getting sore, but I didn't move!!! You can see him sit up on his hind legs, as he sniffed the air; listening, too, as a big truck went by and made him nervous.


Muskrat on & under ice from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
The Muskrat went out on the ice! Milly, Molly and Mick Rat, of the Perth Pond Pilers!!!

He was in and out of the water, even took a sip of melted water. Mick sat there for a long time, fetching food, and coming back onto the ice to eat it. Mick went over to check out one of his structures from the outside.