April 2, 2023: Caught the Otter

This week I caught a river otter on Lake Wicwas.  Not in the literal sense, but caught on film - well, silicon.  Earlier in the week I saw a bobcat bounding across the lake after being startled by a human.  It was way too fast to be able to catch.  But the otter was just lazily hopping and sliding across the ice, so I had time to pick up a camera and click some photos.  It was having great fun out there on the ice - it would take a couple of hops to get up some speed, 

then put its nose down on the ice, 

give a push with its strong hind legs and slide along on its belly for a few feet.

Then jump up, hop, and repeat. 

All told it took less than a minute before it slid up to an island where it disappeared down through a hole and under the ice.  And speaking of ice, there is still a lot of it.  I saw that Lake Winnisquam has much open water, but Meredith Bay is just starting to open up, and Waukewan and Wicwas still have only small gaps along sunny edges - of which the otters take advantage.

The few open spots freeze back over on cold nights.

There is plenty of ice for all the animals to travel on, including this pretty gray fox that walked by my trail camera one night.

It just simply skirted around that open hole to continue its path along the shoreline looking for a midnight meal (this was 2:12am).  At night it's probably looking for mice.  During the day there are lots of squirrels around both red and gray, and those are probably what the bobcat is hunting.

There is lots of snow and ice, but signs of spring are becoming abundant.  This week I saw a pair of buffleheads at the dam, three black ducks in a bit of open water along Chemung Road, and lots of turkey vultures soaring all around the Lakes Region.  A flock of dark-eyed juncos (aka snowbirds) arrived with yesterday's snow, just as their nickname warrants.  

Dark-eyed junco

Coming up from digging in the new snow with a bill full of seed.

Yes, more snow yesterday,

Saturday morning.

while three days earlier it was spring even up in the mountains.  

Mt. Lincoln from Little Haystack.

Though it might not appear that way, it was beautiful warm spring day.

Rime ice coats stunted spruce at the tree line.

Winter-spring-winter-spring - on rages the battle even as we move into April.

The Presidential Range all dressed in white.