Nutria or Muskrat

Helena and I took a walk down to Lake Whatcom so I could take some photographs in the late afternoon light. When we got to the viewpoint from the road I noticed a creature swimming and diving in the lake. At first I thought it was a beaver but then I noticed it did not have a flat tail. Also it wasn't as large as a beaver. So I thought maybe it was a muskrat instead. But it seemed a bit bigger than that and had a round tail. So perhaps a nutria. I am not really sure but I do like the patterns it made as it swam along not far from our vantage point. (Large)

(I retyped this because for some weird reason all the text changed from what I had typed and people who commented responded to, to a copy of yesterday's journal entry. I have no idea why.)