Tag Archives: scientific name

Continued otter fun – for the mammals and me!

Posted on by
1

Part 2: surviving and dining in winter

One otter or two above? My otter friends produced an unusual portrait for me one day while they were running around an icy pond. 😊 It looked as if they had brought an extremely long family member with them!

Continued observation showed, of course, that the resident otters (Lontra canadensis) were all of normal stature. During much of the time that I was able to watch them, the temperatures were very low for North Carolina. In our central area of the state, temperatures in January 2025 were the 18th coldest ever recorded, averaging 36.6°F (2.6°C°F). Some days had significantly low temperatures, such as 17°F (-8.3°C) on 23 January.

That weather meant that the local ponds were partly or mostly frozen and had very icy waters indeed. In this and my next blog, I’ll share with you what I observed and learned about how river otters function in such cold conditions.

Their unique metabolism has several features that collectively enable them to survive in extreme cold.

  • Their very thick, water-repellent fur covers a dense undercoat that traps air. This fur is 10 times denser than that of the bobcat or red fox, with 585 hairs per square mm.
  • The trapped air acts as a buffer against the cold.
  • A thin blubber layer underneath their skin provides a second thermal barrier. (It also gives them extra energy when there is limited food availability.)
  • Shivering increases their internal body temperature.
  • Their high basal metabolism increases when they are actively swimming and diving, which also generates heat and helps them maintain a steady body temperature.
  • Their high metabolic rate enables them to pass food through their digestive system in about 60 minutes.

I was sometimes amazed at how quickly they caught one fish after another and now understand how they could process so much food in a short time. Their 36 teeth, including 4 long canines, obviously help them process the food they capture.

The otters also have corporal features that make their food hunting efficient:

  • Their ears and eyes are high on their heads, enabling them to swim more easily at the water’s surface.
  • They can swim both forwards and backwards, as well as tread water while surveying their surroundings.
  • They are near-sighted, which may improve their underwater vision.
  • Their whiskers are very sensitive, enabling them to more easily capture prey on dark nights or in murky waters.
  • Their ears close under water.
  • Their feet have five webbed toes as well as non-retractable claws.
  • Their traction on slippery surfaces is increased through heel pads on their hind feet.

The otter family that I observed on several occasions was very adept at catching fish. The NC Wildlife Organization notes that they sometimes collaborate in hunting by herding fish.

The pond otters whom I was watching had certain spots that they kept open in the ice, often diving down and coming up with another fish each time. In this video (click here) you can see one enjoying a meal.

Since I know very little about freshwater fish, I posted a couple photos on a fish identification page to find out just what the otters were eating. Group members debated a bit but then came up with these IDs.

Otters with bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus)

Otter with a large largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans)

Biologists say that otters prefer to go after slow-moving fish, including catfish, carp, bass, suckers, and sunfish. Some of the fishing enthusiasts shared about what they had seen otters eat. (Then two men made negative comments and insulted the group moderator, so I removed the photos and left the group so as not to foment more dissension among that group’s adherents.) Here are some of their comments:

  • Otters are such cool animals! Have seen a couple groups while fishing/hunting this year in NC!
  • They’ll eat most any fish. Where I live they have cleaned out nearly all the fish in the ponds near the river. My old pond was teeming with fish when I owned it and now it holds a fraction of the fish it once did.
  • Ours eat a lot of eels. Ophelia/Smith Point, Virginia.
  • Here in New Hampshire I saw them eating what appeared to be fallfish last year.
  • I used to see otters pull rainbow trout out of the river when I lived in Idaho.
  • I hate otter and kill em every chance I get within season…I have had them drag 40 pound catfish out of my ponds and eat them…

It always saddens me when people develop a hatred for an animal (with the possible exceptions of ticks, mosquitoes and chiggers). In any case, I love the otters and will share with you how I saw them play in the next blog.

 

Two “otterly” fun months — otters at three ponds

Posted on by
3

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.

 

 

Interesting encounters

Posted on by
5

Hello readers!

Once again, time has sped by as I contemplated new blogs and set aside photos to include in them. Time gets away from me, though, as I deal with health concerns and ongoing car and household issues. And then to stay on an even keel, I have my daily encounters with nature — either out on a walk (much of the time) or observing the birds and other creatures on my home turf. So my new year’s resolution is to post shorter blogs not requiring so much background research and hoping you find them interesting anyway!

So today, let me tell you about two wildlife encounters I’ve had in the past few weeks. The first was a session with a pair of pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) at a local park. I first saw the male pileated with his bright red “chin stripe” as he worked at the base of a tree.

He had managed to work his way deeply into the trunk with his repeated hammering. But unfortunately, it seemed that he was just not having success finding any larvae or bugs to consume. He continued on for a while, pausing now and again to look around.

He finally decided that his labors at this spot were not that productive and flew up to the top of a nearby tree to continue his quest elsewhere. In the meantime, quite a way down the park path, I heard more loud hammering but coming from up above me. There was Ms Pileated, at work excavating a hole in her own search for sustenance.

Note that she does not have a red chin stripe but she is also a stunning bird. The pileated is now North America’s largest remaining woodpecker species and the third largest woodpeckers worldwide. She was starting her work by chipping off the outer bark from the tree trunk.

         

Then she began rooting around in the outer layer underneath the bark to see if any food was available there. This was followed by more excavation and chipping away at the outermost inner bark layer.

 

As she made progress, she began inserting her long tongue inside, feeling around for bugs and carpenter ants (their main prey).

Her persistence finally paid off when she found a large beetle larva — one of their other preferred meals. It was nice to see her hard work produce results!

My next encounter also involved getting something into one’s mouth — in this case my own. I had been out for some time photographing otters and finally needed to leave quickly. I jumped in my car, grabbed a protein bar and broke off a piece as I got ready to start the engine. I felt something fall on my leg and without looking down, thought I was grabbing a piece of the bar and popped it into my mouth. Lo and behold — it did not feel like nuts, fruit and chocolate, but rather a bit hairy and I removed it from my tongue quickly. What did I discover?

That was a real surprise, believe me! I had never had an insect in my mouth before that I could remember, and I felt badly that it was such a beneficial one! Fortunately, I had not bitten down and the honey bee was whole and uninjured, although perhaps suffering shock from its unexpected journey. I know that I was shocked (and appalled).

I took it out of the car and wanted to put it in the grass but it was not moving from my glove, likely suffering from some trauma. However, eventually I did get it off and it began crawling around in the vegetation.

I couldn’t wait long enough to see if it would fly off but it seemed to be moving around well, so I assumed it would recover from the unexpected (and unwanted on both our parts) encounter. And I will no longer put something in my mouth before checking to see that it really is (vegetarian!) food!

Hope your year got off to a good start and will be healthy and happy!   😃

 

Small, feisty and fascinating — my favorite herons!

Posted on by
5

Well, time has passed again quite quickly since my last blog (at least for me), but I hope you find this posting worth the wait! I’d like to introduce you to my favorite herons.

There are 16 heron species in the USA, and many are fairly large birds. But my favorite is the smallest one — the green heron (Butorides virescens)!

They are sometimes considered rather “secretive” birds, avoiding being out in the open or in full sight. When they sit and stalk near vegetation, they can indeed be difficult to spot.

Even when flying, they can blend in well with background bushes and trees.

This year I was fortunate enough to see them out and about fairly often. They accommodated birders by staying for a while at four different ponds and a small lake.

What used to be a decent pond behind a shopping center was drained a couple years back and became a barren and often trashy area. The beavers who helped keep it water-filled were chased away. But when our area had copious rains in late summer this year, the pond filled partly and sometimes fully. A pair of green herons took up residence for several weeks alongside mallards, a lone hooded merganser, a young ibis, some egrets and little blue herons.

     

Green herons are known by various common names, some of which I find rather weird:

  • Fly-up-the-creek (likely inspired by their swift flight when startled or disturbed)
  • Poke (perhaps referring to how they forage)
  • Shitepoke (referring to their projected fecal matter; see left!)
  • Chalkline
  • Indian Hen and
  • Chucklehead.

In my experience, great blue herons tend to ignore people for the most part, but the greens always seem very aware of our presence and sometimes curious about why we’re watching. So, I might be inclined to give them a nickname like Puzzlers, befitting their sometimes-intent perusal of watchers.

 

 

When not stalking prey, these herons often perch or stand with their long neck pulled in and they look like they’re hunching their shoulders. When you see their neck extended, though, you get a good idea of how tall they can be!

 

 

Other herons are not quite as colorful as the greens. These small herons change their appearance much more, displaying feathers of white, cream, chestnut, green, brown, gray and black colors. This is set off against a pair of yellow or orange legs, making for quite an attractive bird.

     

     

The green herons are among the tool-users of the animal world. They fetch different items to serve as bait to lure fish to the water’s surface, including insects, bread, leaves or feathers. They mostly look for prey while wading along waterways or stalking in shallow areas. Occasionally, they also go after prey in deeper water, evening diving in and needing to swim back to land.

Their diet can be varied, including animals such as frogs, tadpoles, lizards, crayfish, snakes, dragonflies, grasshoppers and other insects, and sometimes small rodents.

This summer I saw one green heron catch a very large frog that was at least as long as its beak, if not longer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a clear photo as my camera has been malfunctioning. ☹

After watching them often, it’s still not entirely clear to me why they sometimes raise their crests. Perhaps it’s a way of warning those around them that they are on the alert and not willing to share space. I do think it gives them an attractive look, although they can be stunning when simply resting on a branch while they survey the surrounding area.

At the end of August, I thought the greens had begun moving on to their winter abodes as I wasn’t spotting them. But then a few days ago, I caught one chilling out at a vineyard pond with no other wading birds in sight.

               

My late summer sighting was perched on branches at the pond’s edge, standing on one leg. Since a large snapping turtle was floating right behind him/her, I hoped that the other leg was simply tucked up under its feathers — and luckily, that was correct.

A threat to these entertaining birds is the alteration and loss of wetlands, which are proceeding quickly. Green herons are not (yet) among the birds whose survival is threatened as a species and individuals can live as long as 9 years. Nevertheless, this year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that wetland loss rates have increased by 50% since 2009 and North Carolina, where I live, was particularly affected.

This continuing decline can only be stopped with more action to preserve existing wetlands, as well as measures to deal with the effects of climate change. I very much hope that I’ll be able to continue seeing the green herons and other wetlands wildlife for a long time to come.

My welcome American crow friends

Posted on by
6

On numerous occasions over the past months, I’ve had ideas for new blogs and set aside photos for posting. But then other things crop up that need to be handled (health, car/house issues and a monthly newspaper column) and I put off blogging. So when fellow blogger Denzil asked his followers to post some photos of corvids, it was a great opportunity to share with you some of my latest photos of favorite visitors to my yard.

A pair of crows have been coming to visit my yard for many years now. I’ve had numerous opportunities to see them courting and looking for treats at bird feeders (and occasional pieces of apple that I put out when they come by). Above, one of them was addressing me and then gave him/herself a kind of creepy look when s/he covered her/his eyes with the nictitating membrane.

Each year, mom and dad return with their newest brood in tow. Sometimes I think offspring from previous years also join the group as this year I’ve had 6 or 7 of them come by at a time.

They are fond of several kinds of bird food that I put out for other birds, including dried mealworms and my homemade suet.

They hang their big bodies off the feeders and then usually fly down to consume whatever morsels they have gotten.

They are a loquacious lot, communicating loudly among themselves much of the time.

They are loudest, however, when they gather together to chase off the red-tailed and Cooper’s hawks who also live in the neighborhood. The crow family does not like them at all and make it known to all their neighbors, avians and humans alike. The other birds are likely happy with their alarm calls as they disappear when warned of hawks in the vicinity.

And then the corvids can also relax, enjoying drinks and bathing in the yard birdbaths. When they appear to have enjoyed a treat, I sometimes find “gifts” left behind in the  brightest birdbath. One day, when I apparently had not given them something special for some time, they took off with a small ceramic turtle that they often would leave in the birdbath after a visit. I now wonder if they gifted another neighbor with that trinket.

Their visits are always welcome to me, perhaps because I haven’t seen them harassing any of the smaller birds. Denzil’s suggestion to post about corvids was a nice reminder of the birding pleasure “my” family of crows brings along.