Friday Fish Wrap: August 13, 2010

Do rats swim? Are there rats inhabiting Truckee Meadows wetlands? I think the answer is “yes”, and I saw it.

Yesterday, I was cycling over in the Damonte Ranch area, and took my ‘wetlands cutoff’. It’s a nifty little couple of miles around a wetlands, where I can usually spot some interesting waterfowl while bumping my mileage up to 18 or 20. In this case, I was able to observe a flock of Pyramid Lake pelicans feeding. And a swimming rat.

Yup. I had hiked down through the brush to get a closer view of the pelicans, and saw something swimming. At first I thought “John Ensign!”, then “otter!”, uh, “muskrat”. No, rat. A big Norway Brown rat paddling back and forth along the shoreline. The tail was awesome. Wish he’d have been predictable enough to get pictures. He couldn’t have cared less about me. I thought he was kinda cute. Scruffy but cute.

Hmmmm. You’ve gotta love the entire natural world.

Click to read more ...