During a recent kayak outing, an otter family entertained us along a stretch of the Russian River. We enjoyed watching the mother hunt for crustaceans while her three pups romped and tussled along the riverbank.
While the otters were hidden in the tangle of branches hanging over the water, we heard crackling noises like someone snacking loudly on a bag of potato chips. When we finally caught a glimpse of Mama, we realized she wasn’t crunching on a mouthful of Lay’s – but a mouthful of crab! She repeatedly trekked to the middle of the river and returned with more crustaceans to share with her youngsters.
We heard some bird-like chirps coming from an otter pup hidden in the dense tangle of roots and limbs. Take a listen to the recording below – to us, it sounds Pygmy Nuthatch-esque.
(We uploaded the recording to eBird under American Crow so we could see the spectrogram … eOtter doesn’t exist yet.)
According to the paper Vocalizations of North American River Otters, “[Chirping] was the most predominant call type during non-aggressive states … Otters chirped when self-grooming and when massaging body against substrate.”
Isn’t that a cute image?
Eventually, we got a clearer look at the ridiculously adorable pup.
We paddled along quietly at a distance as the family traveled upriver, crossing back and forth at times. They were aware of our presence, but generally unconcerned. A large patch of aquatic vegetation caught their eye, and the otters stopped a while to forage and play.
River otters are apex predators and, as an indicator species, it’s always a good sign to see a new otter family in our watershed. Though it’s good news for the health of the ecosystem, the family’s presence was worrisome for the Mallards and Common Mergansers. As the otters proceeded upriver, all ducks in the vicinity hightailed it out of the way with a burst of splashing and quacking. But, on this day, the otters only seemed interested in crustaceans and left the birds alone.
You can learn more about river otters and how they are linked to the overall health of our watersheds at: The River Otter Ecology Project
But wait – this is a bird blog, after all – we can’t wrap up the post without at least one bird photo!
Thank you so much. This is great entertainment !!!
Glad you liked it, André! They sure entertained us! 🙂
Thanks for another great post!
Thanks for reading, Randy!
Wonderful!
You are the one that is wonderful!
All of the photos are so wonderful! The “ridiculously adorable pup” under the the dense tangle of roots is so sweet, they way its paws are visible and its head is turning toward you. The “two pups neck and neck in a race” is also sweet, as well as the fluffy baby mergansers. Thank you!
Thanks, Maggie! That pose of the pup under the tangle is perfect, right?! It looks curious about us weird creatures in the floating device, too.
Hey, what a totally charming post. Thanks so much for the story and for posting your sighting on our website (River Otter Ecology Project). Thanks to sightings uploaded from good folks like you, we’ve added 4,100 square miles to Ca’s. river otter range map. We love Otter Spotters!
Hi Megan, thanks for all that you do for river otters! And for reading our post! 🙂
This was so enjoyable to read! I can’t believe I didn’t realize you could embed your Macaulay Library audio files. Even without an eOtter, but it looks like you can upload your audio files directly to the MacLib as a North American River Otter. So, that’s pretty cool.
Thanks for reading! Oh neat, we’ll look into that – thanks for the tip!
Very, very cool. Thank you for sharing! So happy to see this otter family thriving, and mergansers too.
Thanks, Geri! Us too! 🙂
Always a great story told very well with images to match. 🙂
Thank you, Len!
That’s awesome! Otters are one of the animals I have always most wanted to see in the wild, so thanks for sharing your lovely experience with them : )
Hi Emma! We sure hope you get to have an otter encounter someday!!!