Posts in Category: Otter
Otter!
Otter: Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida, January 2025 — One of my Easy Birds and Wildlife folks spotted this otter crossing the berm and the road ahead of us. We were busy with a Sandhill crane eating bugs around our feet, but we abandoned the Crane to see if we could track down the otter. And, indeed, we saw it crossing the berm 50 yards ahead of us again and got closer just as it ventured back up on the grassy bank. What a treat! They are apparently pretty common at Orlando Wetlands, but I rarely get to see one in the wild. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
River Otter at Viera Revisited
Since it is WildlifeWednesday on Google+, we will drop back a few weeks and revisit the River Otter that a bunch of us found playing on the bank at Viera Wetlands in Florida when I visited in January. As you see from the evidence on his coat, he was rolling in a fresh patch of sand (perhaps an anthill?). By the time I left and moved on, there were at least 20 photographers, with every kind of camera rig imaginable, surrounding the Otter, and I have to say, the Otter did not seem to be bothered by the attention at all. I suspect some phone-camera wielding enthusiast eventually stepped too close and set the Otter back into the water…it certainly was not there on my next loop of the dyke road…but I was not there to see it happen.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. f6,5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
River Otter in a Scrape: Viera Wetlands
You just never know. This young River Otter had made a scrape half way between the water and the top of the dyke and was enjoying a good dust bath when a group of birders found it. It was hard to miss. It was about 10 feet from the road along the top of the dyke at Viera Wetlands where, this week of the Space Coast Birding Festival, thousands of birders a day (not to mention the regular lighter traffic of birders, walkers, bikers, and joggers) will pass. And it was not at all alarmed at the attention. By the time I had taken, oh, maybe, a hundred exposures and several minutes of video and moved on, there were at least 15-20 other photographers surrounding the scrape at more or less respectful distances. Some were a lot closer to my bath than I would have tolerated a human, if I were an Otter…or so it seemed to me.
Of course, with the 1200mm reach of the Canon SX50HS, I had the luxury of framing from just about whatever distance I chose to keep.
Wonderful as this encounter was, and thankful as I am to have been there, the number of people involved made it feel a bit too zooish. It was not, of course, at all. Wild otter in the wild doing its thing…but I would much rather have encountered it when I was alone, up some rocky tributary stream, or even out on the backside of Viera. Picky. That’s me.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 500 and 640. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
