Right in front of our house at the beach is a small lagoon/pond that is regularly visited by Cape Clawless Otters. We've seen them occasioanlly but I've never managed to get a photo of these otters on my trailcam. So, as dusk was falling, I found myself getting a few trailcams ready for a night's work. Suddenly I glanced up and saw a large otter slip out of the pond and make its way slowly across the beach towards the sea. I grabbed my binoculars and dashed down to the beach, followed closely by my teenage son.The otter saw us, calmly turned around and headed back into the dune vegetation. We presumed that was the last we'd see of him but suddenly he/she appeared back in the pond. What followed was, for us, the most extrordinary otter-viewing experience.
We had by that time been joined by my son's friends, one of whom was an exchange student who had the foresight to grab his camera.
The otter swam a little, snorting all the while, then got out and rolled in the sand. He seemed completely self absorbed in his rolling and only occasionally looked up - and gave us a bit of a stare. Then he got back in the water again and swam towards us - snorting even more loudly! One of us took a couple of steps backwards - but I won't say who!
He then then got out of the water and again rolled around in the sand, as before. He repeated the swim & roll routine once more before slowly making his way down the beach and, presumably, into the sea.
I was stunned. I've seen many amazing wildlife 'sightings' but this was certainly up there with the best of them.
So, who needs a trailcam! You just need to be at the right place at the right time - and of course, have a New Zealander with a camera with you.
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteHe had a camera that takes IR pics at night?
That definately helps too!
;)
His SLR, with its small built-in flash, was at the limit of its range. With a bit of cropping and brightening I managed to coax out those photos
ReplyDelete