Padding along in the surf zone:
Stopping to dig for crabs. The otter wasn't messing around. It would actively dig with its front legs, bulldoze through the sand with its snout, and sometimes it would bury its entire head in the sand!
The otter seemed quite successful capturing prey. When chewing crabs, the otter often assumed this distinctive position with its nose pointed towards the sky (making it look similar to a sea lion):
Sometimes the otter caught female Mole Crabs carrying eggs (note the bright orange color):
Between prey captures, the otter would look around:
And sometimes shake its wet fur:
The otter and Sanderlings seemed to keep an eye on each other:
Every time we encounter a River Otter, we learn something new and have more questions about them. And every time, I'm grateful for a few minutes with such an endearing animal.
3 comments:
I think the otter image yesterday was my favorite of all your posts..wonderful composition,contrasts, and subject. Nice to see the longer story today.
Yeah, those river otters (and your pics of them) are just adorable!
Now I do have a question about the sanderlings, which I also encounter all the time, and like A LOT: When they dip their bills into the wet sand at a high rate when the waves retreat - are they just probing the beach for prey, pulling something out to eat very so often, or are they pulling something every time? How do they operate? At other times, I see them sitting up on the beach, and I have also seen a few hopping along on one leg, even though it turned out later that they did have both legs!
Doerte
River otters love freshwater mussels. Have you ever seen them (or evidence of) eating Mytilus mussels?
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