River Otter

Description

THIS was a dream come true and one of the top two animals that were on our list for this trip! We spent a fair amount of time, investigating and researching when and where... . We woke up at about 6am and hit hwy 60 first and foremost, hoping to come across a Moose. With no luck there, we decided to take a turn down Opeongo Rd. The snow was deep and untouched, so we dropped it into 4x4 and crossed our fingers and started breaking trail down this road. . It seemed pretty dead, but we did see fox tracks all the way down the road, so this got us a little excited for that possibility. We got all the way through, turned around and started our trek back out. We decided to pull over just as we came to the large open area, where the river snakes its way back and forth through it. . We get out, take a look around and nothing to be seen... until......... at the very other side, we see something on top of the snow, moving... at first we look at each other and think... COULD IT BE? Could it be a Great Grey Owl!?!?! . Tim grabs his bino's, I grab my long lens and at the same time we silently scream... IT'S A RIVER OTTER!!!!! . We grab our gear, tripods, hats, gloves, etc and start trekking to the other side of the area (300 or so metres). We get there, set everything up and I realize, CRAP - I have the wrong plate on my one camera... I decide, hey, I'm going back to get the truck and switching this out and I'll bring the truck down. . I get almost to the truck and THERE IT IS... darn thing had swam all the way through the river to where we'd parked. I silently wave like a wild man over to Tim letting him know! (poor guy had to run all the way back with his camera and tripod AND mine lol - thanks buddy). . WE then proceeded to spend about a good hour with this chap - popping up not 15' from us with a fish in mouth. What a rush it was! A couple other folks showed up, but never did get the opportunities we had with it. . Enjoy the photos - there are far more coming, but figured I'd start with these ones. It was snowing quite a bit (the beauty and downfall at the same time), but I like how they turned out. . River Otter Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario Jan 2023

Taken By

Shaun Antle

Taken On

February 22, 2023

Tagged

canon sigma algonquin provincial park river otter wildlife lifer animal mammal bird