Very Pic Heavy Day

[Old Dude]

I apologize for posting so many pics but today gave me a lot to see. First were the Great Blue Heron and the Great Egret together. They weren't very close so I had to crop the pics quite a bit. That affects the quality. You get what ya get, right?




For some reason the pics did not upload in the order I selected them, so I guess these hummers are next lol. This afternoon was very cloudy so I had to use a very high ISO and there is quite a bit of noise in them, so again...you get what ya get





Ok, back to the Wetlands pics now.




Now these next 3 pics are very special to me. They show what I believe are the head, back and tail of an otter. There were 2 that were hunting frogs or fish and this is the very first time I have ever seen any in the wild! I was very appreciative for the chance to see them even though it was limited. Hopefully Tamrock, RGINN or anyone else that is familiar with otters will confirm them for me. They were about 2 1/2 - 3 ft long and slender. I only saw them as they are in the pics and didn't get to see them out of the water.




Thanks for looking and sorry for so many pictures again

 

[tamrock]

The head and the tail looks like all the other otter pictures I've been looking at lately. They're not all that rare in many parts of the country, but they were just about extinct here in Colorado and that's why the Colorado Parks and Wildlife River Otter Project wants ever sighting reported. Some areas the otters in Colorado where released no otters were ever seen or reported again and one can only assume they either didn't like where they were released and moved somewhere else or they didn't survive I'd stake out that body of water and try to get some more picture of what that is. Maybe get up in a near by tree looking over the water? Great Humming Bird shots.

 

[BosnMate]

Looks like an Otter to me. Other choice would be nutria. Otters have a heavy tail, nutrias look like an over sized rat. We had both in the log pond where I worked for 31 years. Some place I have pictures of those Otters, but those were back in the days of film and prints, and I haven't the foggiest where they might be now. The huge air compressor was water cooled, and the warm water was discharged back into the pond. Fish would gather in that water, and the otters would have a field day, catch fish and then come up on the cat walk right at your feet and eat the fish.

 

[kcm]

"...nutrias look like an over sized rat."

Nutrias ARE an oversized rat! Had them in a nearby lake growing up in Texas. Have river otter even way up here, but no nutrias - thankfully.


Old Dude - not overly pic-heavy at all!! I can certainly see why you posted so many - they're awesome! ...Gonna have to edge it out to the hummers, though.

 

[Old Dude]

Thanks guys. I was fairly certain they were an otter but I will always accept input. Looks like the tail of a Nutria is thinner and the animal looks like a muskrat almost. At first I thought these were beavers, but once I quit watching the Egret and Heron and paid attention to them, I couldn't contain my excitement. The head would break the surface and then dive. The back would come rolling out of the water ( I instantly thought of the famous Loch Ness pics ) and then the tail would appear. I would just have to guess where it would surface again so I could try and get pics. Once I saw there were 2 of them, I noticed they seemed to be hunting together and driving their prey into one end of the pond so the congestion might make it easier to catch them. All the water is covered in algae and moss now so climbing a tree wouldn't give me any more view. Good idea otherwise though. Rules of the preserve says stay on the trails and no destruction so I probably couldn't anyway. Thanks again for your thoughts

 

[kcm]

"I instantly thought of the famous Loch Ness pics"

You "DO" know that the mystery of Loch Ness has been solved, haven't you?? It was actually quite simple. A Texas otter got lost one day and ended up in Scotland. As they had never seen an otter of such size, they just assumed it was something prehistoric.