With all of the sports shooting that we’ve been doing in the last month, my wildlife photos have kind of taken a back seat. But we are all finished for the year with sports so I have a chance to catch up on my wildlife posts, and the first one would have to be the Otters of course. Clink on the image to enlarge.
This Otter happened to nab a very respectable size Carp for breakfast and he was nice enough to bring it up on a log so I could see it. I had never seen them grab something that big before and I wanted to see how he was going to handle something of that size. I’m guessing the fish to be about 15” long and somewhere in the 3-5 ib. range.
The first thing he did once he got it on the log was to chew the tail off. I’m not sure if that was intentional, but it did seem logical. If the fish has no tail, he can’t swim away…
And what really impressed me was that he ate the whole damn thing, fins, head, and all!
Try not to swallow it whole!
Eventually his bestie (mate, buddy, sibling?) came by and asked if they could get a taste…… uh-uh-uh….. this Otter wasn’t inclined to share a single morsel of their breakfast. What a pig!
Don’t go away mad, just go away….
Eventually the Otter realized that he wasn’t going to share, so they went over to the lodge and sulked.
And last, but not least, here he is after eating a very large breakfast. He’s looking very smug! I just can’t believe he ate the whole thing! Their stomach can’t be any bigger than your fist, and the only thing that was left of that fish were some scales floating on the water.
With the colder nights that are in the forecast, the pond will begin to freeze over for good. We’ve been very fortunate that the open water lasted this long, but I think by this time next week the pond will be mostly iced over.
So while you have the chance, get out and shoot!!!