Various Oregon Birding Piks: OTTER QUEST

8/31/20

In the last few years I've added bird photography to my birding hobby. But anyone with these dual interests will always take advantage of other wildlife as he has opportunity. Today was one of those days. I went over to Morgan Lake and the marsh which receives it outflow. At the dammed end of the marsh I chanced upon a pair of otters. They have never let me be so close before, and I don’t know why one allowed me to sit on the bank and watch him. He was very wary, and in 15 minutes only let me snap a few pics twice, usually hiding among the willows, so I had to make the best of it. He was also doing some alarm grunt, which I thought was some kind of heron hidden in the willows until I actually saw him doing it. Here are the 3 best ones from the experience.

This is not a smile nor a pose, but a growl

The next day, Sept 1, I found myself back at the refuge looking for a rare Lark Sparrow, which I did not find. I was about 1.5 miles from yesterday’s photoshoot with the otters. I was near the east end of the main marsh, which has been drained for weed control, walking along the dike road. There is a culvert which goes under that road, and I noticed there was a small pool on the outflow side about 15 feet wide and 40 feet long. I was walking quite slow in my strategy of looking for the sparrow, and noted an otter on the north bank of the pool. He did not notice me, so I tried sneaking around to the south bank to get pics, but he saw me before I was ready, dove into the water and into the culvert. A minute later another one came out of the weeds, also dove into the water and into the culvert.

I reasoned that they would not exit the other end of the culvert because that area was an open, dry mudflat, which would expose them to danger. So I waited, and in about 10 minutes they came out to the pool, and it was then I counted 3 of them. There were 2 adults and one youngster. They swam and dove, allowing me a few mediocre shots, before getting overly concerned and headed back into the culvert.

This time I reasoned they would probably get tired of treading water and would eventually come back out. Ten minutes later and they did just that. I had repositioned myself a few feet over, in between some large clumps of grass so as to not be too conspicuous. This time they decided to take the chance and rested on the far bank, the youngster even galloping up the bank to groom himself and dry off, even roll around a bit on the dry mud. The adults were a little more wary. So I took advantage again of the situation and let the camera roll away also. This only lasted for about 5 minutes, and then they were back in the culvert.

All this time they were making grunts and mews, similar to what I was hearing yesterday. I then remembered the movie I saw as a kid, “Ring of Bright Water,” in which that otter would often make a certain noise which was mimicked by his owner. So I did by best impression which was something like “wad-wad-wad-wad” in a low pitch, and wha-lah! They came out immediately and swam around. Maybe I can claim the title “Otter Whisperer?” They next went over to a Nutria which was sharing the pool at the far end, only to be growled at, so they went back over to the far bank. They must have accepted the option of taking a chance with me rather than continue to tread water for so long, and scampered up on the bank. The adults began grooming one another, while the youngster seemed to feel neglected, nudged his parents for some likely grooming, but they would have none of it. He even squealed at the nutria in his distain, or so it appeared. So this allowed me to get a few more shots. I have to admit it was great fun to be so close again to otters for the second day in a row, watching them have their fun. And then, in 5 minutes there were back in the culvert. I decided to let them have their privacy, so took off.

I suppose this could be the same group as I saw yesterday when I only saw 2 of them but I’ll never know for sure.