Day 323: November 19th – Morgan Farm

Sunny, cool, and calm

       Back in the day, as the say, when I was teaching High School Environmental Science classes, I used to spend a good deal of time hiking with my classes through property owned by the federal government.  It is known as Morgan Farm, named for the Morgan horses that were raised and trained there rather than for any notable human named Morgan.  The site of a wonderful vernal pool, a mixed deciduous forest, and several ponds, it made for an ideal outdoor laboratory/study site for my classes.

       I received an e-mail memo from a former colleague and great friend who still teaches that same course that he had recently seen a couple of River otters on the largest pond at that site and thought I might be interested in taking a walk through the area to see if I might also spot them.  So, with camera in hand, I returned to my old “classroom” in the hopes of snapping a couple of shots of this sleek mammal to share with the readers of my blog.

      When I parked the car, grabbed my camera and scope, and walked over to the largest pond, I trained the field of view on the site Mike had suggested he had seen them earlier.  As if on cue, there was the otter.  It swam lazily along and suddenly dove.  When it emerged back at the surface, I could only thinking of a breaching whale.  The entire head exploded out of the water as the otter reached the surface, almost as if he were gasping for air.  I don’t believe any self-respecting otter would allow itself to become so depleted of oxygen in a shallow lake that it would burst to the surface in search of its first breath, but it sure looked that way.  Do otters have a sense of humor?  Do they play?  They certainly seem to with one another, but this otter was alone and if this was play, it was simply for his own pleasure and enjoyment.

       All this being said, I hope I’ve conjured up a respectable image in your mind’s eye, for all I have to offer here is reminiscent of those old photos of the Loch Ness Monster or the Yeti. The shot of the otter above was actually taken back in April in Florida.  Today,  at a distance of several hundred meters, the images show (with some creative mental imagery on your part) the back and head of the otter just before and during his dive.  I’ll take this as a challenge, however, and return in an attempt to capture some images that are a bit more “blog-worthy”.

       In the meantime, I did manage some nice shots of one of our most cooperative subjects and one of our most photogenic, the Mallard.  A small group of mixed males and females was swimming in what we used to call the “Lily Pond” and lived up to that reputation.  This will have to do until I return for the definitive otter shot.  Enjoy.