The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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July 2019
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Maybe it’s temporary, I hope so. The river otter I saw a couple of weeks ago rolling in the sand is still around I think — I’ve seen one otter in the same bay a couple times since then and he still isn’t seeing out of his right eye.
Based on a little reading I’ve done it doesn’t appear to be a dealbreaker for an otter. A wildlife cam project run by an ecological survey group in Scotland tracked several one-eye otters and found they were surviving well, one a female who reared a cub, another a male who looked well-fed and healthy. They speculated on the possible causes of the eye damage, thinking it was unlikely due to fighting with another otter as they tend to go for the groin area. Perhaps tangling with barbed wire or other debris, or dog attack, or getting hit by a car, or even disease. (www.findlayecologyservices.co.uk/…). Any of those are possible here too.
Fortunately otters don’t depend only on vision in the wild, and in fact when hunting primarily use their whiskers and sense of touch, it being dark under water (animaldiversity.org/...). Clearly this otter was having no trouble hunting. I watched him for fifteen minutes or so and he was steadily consuming small fish, one after the next, which is typical behavior for otters. They dive, come up after a minute or so with prey, chomp it down, and dive again for the next one. This bay has an abundance of bottom fish like gunnels and sculpins, which can be swallowed whole, and flounder and crab, which usually need to be hauled out somewhere to dismember and eat in pieces.
These pics were taken July 27, when he wasn’t too far from shore:
Chomping and swallowing fish on the surface:
Let’s hope for the best for this guy. He seems in good health otherwise, and is feeding and grooming well. I’ll watch for him and report any changes.
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Foggy this morning in the PNW islands, looks like sun will burn through soon. Daytime temps have been running into the low 70s these days, nighttime still in the 50s. Got a little rain last night! 0.12”! That’s quite a bit at this time of year. Dampens our rock hard dry ground a little.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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