{"id":263,"date":"2013-04-04T22:12:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T02:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=263"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:00:23","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:00:23","slug":"muskrats-on-jamaica-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/muskrats-on-jamaica-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Muskrats on Jamaica Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaica Pond is finally ice-free!  The wind coming off the water yesterday, however, did not feel like it.  We took a walk as the sun set.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_1_geese.jpg\" alt=\"Canada geese in Jamaica Pond\" title=\"Canada geese in Jamaica Pond\" width=\"800\" height=\"427\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-264\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_1_geese.jpg 800w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_1_geese-300x160.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>American coots were diving for vegetation and then squabbling once a coot was successful at obtaining some.  It&#8217;s late in the year for the coots, which should leave for their summer breeding grounds in the Upper Midwest and Canada any day now.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_2_coot.jpg\" alt=\"American coots feeding\" title=\"American coots feeding\" width=\"800\" height=\"466\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-265\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_2_coot.jpg 800w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_2_coot-300x174.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A few red maples were starting to bloom, but most trees, like this sycamore\/plane tree were still bare.  Sycamores not only have a mottled bark, but their twigs leave the branches in bunches, giving the bare tree a knotted look.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_3_sycamore.jpg\" alt=\"Sycamore tree with no leaves\" title=\"Sycamore tree with no leaves\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-266\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_3_sycamore.jpg 500w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_3_sycamore-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We spotted a lone animal low in the waters of the Pond, which quickly dove under.  We presumed it was a duck, perhaps a loon, and waited for it to surface.  After waiting for a couple minutes, the wind icing us over, we gave up and continued to walk.  Perhaps it was some sort of jumping fish.<\/p>\n<p>Soon enough, we saw it close to shore.  It was a muskrat!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_267\" aria-labelledby=\"figcaption_attachment_267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 810px\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_4_muskrat.jpg\" alt=\"Muskrat swimming\" title=\"Muskrat swimming\" width=\"800\" height=\"487\" class=\"size-full wp-image-267\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_4_muskrat.jpg 800w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_4_muskrat-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"figcaption_attachment_267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muskrat swimming in Jamaica Pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A greasy-looking creature, it balled itself up on a log and chomped on whatever greenery it had managed to find.  Look for the muskrats on the south end of the Pond, where the path rises high above the water.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268\" aria-labelledby=\"figcaption_attachment_268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 810px\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_5_muskrat.jpg\" alt=\"Muskrat on a log\" title=\"Muskrat on a log\" width=\"800\" height=\"503\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_5_muskrat.jpg 800w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/2013_04_04_5_muskrat-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"figcaption_attachment_268\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The muskrat dining on a log<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaica Pond is finally ice-free! The wind coming off the water yesterday, however, did not feel like it. We took a walk as the sun set. American coots were diving for vegetation and then squabbling once a coot was successful &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/muskrats-on-jamaica-pond\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65,58,190,72,63,101,493,99,100,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}