Mosaic Monday #69: You "Otter" See This!

Living remotely as we do, we risk complacency.  We might take for granted the forest, the lake, the majestic hills.  And then, it happens - a chance encounter reminds me we are blessed that wilderness still exists, and no further than our doorstep.

Two weeks ago, I bundled up for an extended walk in our "back yard".  I had no particular destination in mind; my goal was physical exercise and fresh air.  Given the snow, animal tracks are evident at this time of year, and often I will follow an intriguing game trail to see where it leads.  That day, I decided to skirt the edge of the lake at the bottom of our property.  It is shallow on the edges, and with ice thick enough to be safe, I can walk in areas that would normally be too marshy.

Can you see the dark brown spot in the middle of the photo?

As I wove through thickets of alder, with the frozen lake on my left, I spotted a patch of open water ahead.  Strange.  I moved closer and suddenly there was movement in the dried reeds - a solid brown body slid forward and into the water.  I automatically assumed beaver - I have written before about our dam-building buddies (here and here).  I retreated a bit and trained my binoculars on the spot where the critter had entered the water.  Within minutes, a whiskered nose emerged, followed by a glistening pelt and lengthy tail.  It was an otter!

February 19; 6.40 AM

I snapped some pictures and video with my phone, but none of it was satisfactory as you can see with the picture above.  I watched the otter for 10 - 15 minutes, and it spent the time rolling in the snow and cleaning its fur.  (I have since learned that North American river otters dry themselves and uphold the insulative quality of their fur by frequent rubbing and rolling on grass, bare ground and logs.)  When I could tear myself from the spectacle, I looked in the snow for tracks that might lead me to the den.  Sure enough, nearby was the tell-tale glide/pawprints/glide/pawprints pattern, ending at the mouth of a hole under a fallen tree.  I looked at the horizon and realized there would not be enough time to retrieve my trail cam and place it here.  Sigh.  It was a couple of days before I did so, and it was torture to wait several more days before retrieving the disk.  But so worth it!  As you can see in the photo above, the trail cam started delivering photos right away.  

The trail cam captured other pictures between February 20 and 25, but they are blurred or not the best angle.  As you can see from the time stamps, this "fellow" is an early riser!  It is interesting that the trail cam has not documented the otter returning to the den (the den is to the right in all of these photos, so it would seem that these are pictures of the otter leaving the den.)  I might shift the camera angle in the future to get shots of the hole itself.  So far, the picture below is the only one in "daylight".

You may be wondering if this is always the same otter - in other words, might there be a pair, and can we expect kits?  You will find out when I do!  (I have read that adult females move and den alone from mid-winter through the breeding season.)  The trail cam did not capture any pictures of the otter between February 25 and the afternoon of February 27, the last time I retrieved the disk.  So it was worrisome to see this as one of the final pictures on the disk:

But rest easy, my friends, I could see the otter in the grass near the open water - it is alive and well!  I am beside myself with joy to know that this marvelous creature is our neighbor.  In my reading, I learned that otters are quite particular about their habitat, and their presence indicates good water quality.  Somehow its residence comforts me, a sign of something that is still wild, pure and natural.  It reminds me of why we came to Montana, and rekindles my passion to preserve our little slice of wild for future generations.

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.
Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.
The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday (U.S. Mountain time).
Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.
Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.
As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.
Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.
Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

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