The past two months brought me some really rewarding wildlife sightings. While birding, I learned new things about a couple avian species (see The Wild Side). But my main wildlife entertainment came from discovering and watching otters at three ponds. (A reminder: if you click on a photo, it enlarges; to get back to the blog, back space.)

My first sighting came on 29 November 2024 at a pond near a large housing development. I’d been looking to see if the beavers were at their lodge when I suddenly spotted some movement low in the water. To my amazement, four beautiful otters came swimming by, heading in the direction of the beaver lodge (photo above). They kept themselves fairly hidden behind vegetation and then went to sit and play on the lodge behind some brush and small trees growing on the beavers’ home.

My next sighting was very unexpected, at a pond that had lost a lot of wildlife because the vineyard owner who purchased the surrounding farmland had cut down almost all the trees, shrubs and vegetation for miles around.

Because some migrating waterfowl still occasionally show up at the formerly lively pond, I visited there hoping to spot at least a few ducks. I was surprised to see a round head and sinuous body emerging from the water.

To my delight, I got to watch not just one but two otters swimming about and successfully nabbing fishy meals. One seemed to be less wary of people watching; the other would only stay in sight for a short time and then head to the pond bank underneath a lone standing tree as long as people were around.

I’m not sure what kind of fish they were catching, but they seemed to be enjoying good meals.

My next sighting was at the Sandy Creek Park in a nearby town. An otter suddenly popped up and began swimming low in the water among the vegetation. Then it swam across the pond to a beaver lodge and there caught some animal for a meal.

The mammal was quite far away and my camera lens wasn’t strong enough to get good views. In the end, I figured that it had caught a crayfish or something similar.

My best views of otters came when I returned to the pond where I had first spotted the quartet. Despite repeated visits, I didn’t see four of them anymore but only a trio.

It might be that the fourth one was a male who went off on his own. When winter comes and food is less accessible, otter groups tend to disperse so that each family member has access to food and food stores are not depleted.

River otters tend to roam over a specific territory, staying in one spot for one to four weeks. In the summertime, they may travel within an area of 20 square miles, but in winter they expand their territory upwards to about 60 square miles to maximize their success in finding food.

Fish are a dietary staple, especially in winter, but they also eat crayfish, crabs, turtles, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and even occasionally birds or small mammals. Besides the otter at Sandy Creek Park, I only saw them eating fish, but it was amazing how many fish they could catch and eat in quick succession.

In fact, their ability to almost always come up with a fish after going under water or dunking their head into the pond must account for the fact that the resident great blue heron tended to stick close to them. The heron would watch intently where they were fishing and when they moved to another area of the pond, the large bird would follow.

At one point, the heron stayed so close to a fishing otter that I wondered if the large bird was going to attempt to snatch a fish away, but that didn’t happen!

The hungry avian finally did catch fish, too.

In my next blog, I’ll show you some of the otters’ successful winter fishing forays, let you know how they manage to keep swimming in icy waters and outside temperatures of 15-30°F, and let you see how the otters were playing.