Urban wildlife in December

Cormorant on the Merrimack River

It wasn't quite 30 degrees when I started on my walk this morning. The sun streaming in through the window tricked me into thinking I was dressed right, but the frigid air seeped right through my jeans by the time I hit the mile mark.
I'm on winter break from school so of course my thoughts during the walk were mostly about school. As I passed a cormorant sitting on a log poking up from the swelled river, I thought about the spring life sciences unit and started imagining how I could get my students looking carefully at the habitat that is our city. I heard some ducks squawking back and forth then passed a small flock of geese in the shallows, but when I saw the little muskrat chewing something near the edge of the river, I knew I had to record this for them.

Can you make out the little fur ball at the water's edge? He seemed to be a muskrat.

There's a lot to like about Lowell.
#UrbanWildlife