Otter Heaven Contd. (Day 8 - A Marathon Stalk)

My partner, Jacq, joined me for the second week. I was quite anxious about delivering on the expectations of seeing otters - our last trip together was a complete failure! I'm happy to say, this trip was completely different. On our first morning out, we found this dog otter at about 5:30am. I'd come to expect this male to be hanging around in this area so we kept out eyes peeled.
After about 30 mins of creeping along the shore, I settled down to watch him fish, while Jacq remained further up the shore being savaged by the midges (poor lass looked like she had measles!) After another 15mins, he caught a fish too large to handle in the water, so brought it to shore. The light was beautiful and soft, but very low (100th sec at f/4) as it was struggling to break through some cloud. I shot about 10 frames sparingly, but only 2 were sharp. To add to the problems, I had been caught napping and did not have a suitable rock nearby to rest the camera and beanbag on. I made do by sitting on my butt and supporting the camera, 600mm f/4, and beanbag on my knees!

After he'd finished his meal, the otter slid back into the water. He was naturally wary and he knew there was something on the shore. The swirling breeze often exposed our presence. Whenever he caught a sniff, I just froze. He often double-backed to zero in on the source of the strange smell. He would disappear under the water, then gently raise his head through the floating seaweed, without a single ripple. He never saw me move and so couldn't be sure. Sometimes, the otter pursued the smell to within a couple of metres, but still couldn't see clearly - Thankfully, I was dressed in camo that day and laid flat along the rocks to hide my human outline.
He was never alarmed and never dived to escape. He just floated and watched the shore. Satisfied that there was nothing to fear, he carried on fishing. We kept up this game of cat and mouse for nearly 4 hours! I was exhausted as I had to keep low and 'sniper crawl' over the slippery, seaweed-covered rocks to follow (which is bloody hard work with a 600mm lens). He was such a large otter, that he rarely needed to come to shore to feed. He managed to cope with almost everything in the water. This shot to right was one of those few occasions - coming to shore to scent mark.

I think it is fair to say that there are easier otters to photograph, but it is a truly wonderful experience to be in such close company with a wild otter... the images become incidental.