Tag: otters

The only possible word is sleek

[Back to Lovell, Maine, for now.]

We had had the first proper snowfall of the winter on December 2nd, six inches of lovely fluffy stuff, so on the morning of December 3rd I snowshoed in to our beaver pond. Joy of joys, as I stood on the shoreline two young otters popped out of the ice just a few feet in front of me.

We were all a little startled, but I took a few quick photos:

and after one minute twenty seconds they slid back in:

I stayed put, and ten minutes later they returned, this time checking immediately to see if I was still there:

Since I clearly was, they didn’t hang around, only twenty seconds total this time, but then I saw a third one, on the left, further out on the ice near the beaver lodge.

This one was larger, perhaps the mother, and she was fishing successfully, three different fish over the course of fifteen minutes:

Eating one took a while:

Later, another otter joined her, but she didn’t share her fish. Watch the video here:

After a bit the youngsters appeared, sunbathing:

Looking for the others:

and sliding on the ice:

A communal slide, followed by a dip:

A perfect morning, for me and apparently for them too..

Back at the Ranch: Hanging out on the Ice

For some time I’ve been sending you blogs from Chile, but back at home, even though winter is fairly quiet, there are things to report, so here is a Maine update.

The beaver pond is frozen, and the beavers are supposed to be safely in their lodges, but mine hadn’t got the memo. New Year’s Eve was warmish, and and in the late afternoon I saw a small moving object in the distance on the ice, rear left:

The beaver had decided to catch a few rays:

After half an hour the sun had sunk below the horizon, so he slid back into the water:

but remerged a little later chewing on a twig he had found under the ice, presumably in his stash. I’ve never seen one out in the open in the middle of winter before.

The otters, on the other hand, are regulars all winter long. I will see them three days in a row, then not at all for several days, and then they return. This one had just come out of the water. He is shaking just his head (blurry), while holding his body still (sharp):

They are vigilant out on the ice, but tolerate my presence so long as I am not too close:

This one is pretending to be a mongoose. Once in a while one emerges very close to me, and usually doesn’t stick around:

They pose too:

But best of all is when they play; I think this is probably a mother and two nearly fully-grown cubs. The video is about 2 minutes; they go in and out of the water, and near the end they briefly look straight at the camera.

Back to Chile next time.