I saw an otter on the ice today!

Friday, 11 December 2020

I walked down to the river this afternoon, fixated on the gorgeous scene before me. The open water, between ice sheets, was black but at the right angle, reflected the shoreline.

A blob of black, on the ice to the left of the open water, caught my eye. A beaver…no, it was longer and, just then it slid through a hole in the ice, disappearing into the depths of the frigid water. An otter!

It’s been years since I saw one. There was a time, not long ago, a family of river otters lived on the river. I would watch them play on the ice. They reminded me of seals playing on ice that I had seen on TV. And in the summer when I would take the boat out, they would bark at me. I recall one time while I was walking along the nature trail next to the river, I must have been close to their den because one of them became agitated and barked at me, bobbing up and down in the river until I moved on. I had no idea if it would attack and wasn’t about to stick around to find out!