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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September 2020
Salish Sea, PacificNorthwest
One quiet bay near my house is popular among river otters. I see them there pretty regularly. There are a few houses fronting on this bay but they are only used occasionally in summer so most of the time otters freely come and go back and forth between the water and the wetland/forest next to it (or houses: one of the summer people related a long story once about what it took to evict and exclude a family of otters who had moved into their crawlspace). There are otter trails and at least one den in the bramble thickets by the beach.
Usually it’s just one lone otter I see fishing in the bay. Lately though I’ve been seeing two families of them. An otter family is a mom and her pups from the current year. Otters are born in spring, weaned in summer, and then hang out with mom until next spring learning the ropes and the neighborhood. (WDFW River Otters)
One day I saw a group of four otters doing something on the edge of a little island in the bay. Then another group paddled over from shore and climbed up on the island. A couple of them waited for a bit, watching behind; a few minutes later another paddled over and joined them. They were clearly all a group. The second family climbed onto a flat bare patch and rolled around there for quite a while.
My pics are from about 400 yards away so not great resolution. My zoomed video helps to see them by their movement.
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After the first group was done, very likely working on some large prey item like a big crab or fish, they climbed up onto the flatter part too. I’ve walked around on that little island at low tide. It has tons of crab shells and otter poop and a few areas of flattened grass.
A few weeks later I saw a group of eight otters fishing offshore together. Very likely they were the same two families. Otters aren’t territorial. They tend to roam a general area on a circuit so you won’t see them two days in a row.
They were having great success finding crabs and fish along the bottom of the bay several hundred yards out, bringing food up to the surface and chomping it down before diving down again. Even out that far it’s only 10-15 feet deep.
One of the otters left the group to swim over to a rock with its catch. If prey is too big to eat at the surface they need a table on which to break it into pieces.
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After a few minutes it jumped back in the water and swam back to the group. They were still vigorously diving and chomping food when I left. These youngsters have the hang of it now.
Two families — this must have been a good year for otters.
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Foggy today in the PNW islands today. Calm wind. Not smoky. Noticeably cooler, temps in the 50s.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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