River Otter Gallery

A river otter chews on a fish in Long Lake

Nature Can Be Cruel

After spending a long while watching a distant kingfisher work the waters of Long Lake at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, it suddenly flew to a perch not far from the car. As I brought the camera up I noticed the waters below the perch churning and lo and behold several river otters were also fishing the lake. Kingfisher and otter, two animals I've long struggled to shoot.

What to do?

The otters were moving so quickly that it was difficult to get a picture, so I took a few shots of the kingfisher before returning to the otters. In the end and much to my surprise nature turned from cruel to kind and I got nice pictures of both.

Kind to me if not to the fish, attacked by feathered fisher above and furred fisher below.

A river otter surfaces in Long Lake at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Two river otters on the ice in Bower Slough at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Quickly Now

The year got off to a cold start and when I arrived at Ridgefield early in the morning on January 2nd, I was pleased to see that some of the waters of the refuge had frozen over. I had several opportunities during the day to take pictures that included the ice and had to work quickly for most of the them. It started with sunrise over the frozen Horse and Long Lakes, and ended late in the day with a raccoon testing the melting ice.

In the middle of the morning I was delighted to find these two otters that had just surfaced through a hole in the ice covering Bower Slough. I hoped to get pictures of them frolicking on the ice, it had started to melt as you can see by the thin layer of water in the back, but it was still plenty strong for them to run on. But I was only able to get this picture, the otter in the back is looking off to its left and soon what got its attention sent them both shrieking across the ice. I looked behind me to see what could possibly have spooked them with such alarm, a behavior I've not seen before, and got my answer as a large SUV came barreling past.

A river otter surfaces and chews on a fish with its mouth wide open

Elusive

Despite seeing otters at Ridgefield many times, I've rarely gotten pictures. I had a good opportunity on this day as I had seen them swimming further down the auto tour and found a nice spot to wait for them to swim by. But right as they came up, another photographer came hurrying up, jumped out of their car and starting taking pictures. I fired off a few quick frames before the otters fled, this otter had just surfaced with a fish and was chewing with its mouth wide open in typical otter style.

Four Circles

Every time I see a black-and-white picture, even my own, I always wonder what it would have looked like in color. Even when I prefer the black-and-white version, such as this river otter swimming in Rest Lake. When I do look at the color version, I'm reminded why I converted it to B&W in the first place. One thing I like about the B&W version is that it emphasizes the four dark circles of the otter's face, the two eyes and the two nostrils, flared wide as it breathes before diving under the surface to hunt for fish.

A black-and-white picture of a river otter swimming in Rest Lake at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

A river otter swims in Rest Lake at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge