Just before sunset, I saw a muskrat swimming in a slough*! It was so cute! Like a teeny tiny beaver.
*People around here call the big, shallow swampy lakes around here "sloughs" and I think it's a great word
@sundogplanets Louisiana here, slough is very common in these parts as well
@tsrono oh cool! I didn't know how widespread it was...I remember seeing the term when I read the "Little House on the Prairie" books when I was a kid, and then didn't hear it again until moving to Saskatchewan.
I'm a brisk walk from the Columbia Slough in North Portland, which includes nice things like a wetlands reserve, but a lot of the surrounding area was drained long ago for transshipment centers and other sorts of things that you see on the map. Not to mention an International Airport. But you see lots of leggy Blue Herons walking around even so.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Columbia+Slough/@45.6136687,-122.7075925,13z/
@pieist @sundogplanets herons are the best!