River Otter Gallery

A river otter surfaces and chews on a fish with its mouth wide open

White Whale

While I've seen otters at Ridgefield many times, I rarely get to photograph them and great pictures still elude me. I had my best opportunity on this day as I had seen them swimming further down the auto tour and found a nice spot to wait for them to swim by. But right as they came up, another photographer came hurrying up, jumped out of their car, and starting taking pictures. I fired off a few quick frames before the otters fled but they still remain my elusive white whale. This otter had just surfaced with a fish and was chewing with its mouth wide open in typical otter style.

Fast Food

I arrived at Ridgefield with the dawn and noticed a group of female ducks out of the corner of my eye. A better look turned the ducks into river otters, at which point I suffered my typical malady: in my excitement I could barely remember how to hold the camera much less operate it. This otter surfaced with a fish in its mouth and made short work of it, you can see the fish’s tail sticking out of the edge of its mouth. The otters were working this channel quite successfully and all were getting their fill of fish.

River otter swimming with its mouth open

River otter eating a fish while swimming