Breakfast Time for the Otter Family

Two years ago, I enjoyed keeping track of two different Northern River Otter families — one near Fernwood Dock, north of where I live on Salt Spring Island and one in Booth Bay near my home. I managed to photograph the Fernwood family over the winter at some distance and in very low light. And during the summer, I caught the Booth Bay family at sunset. But it wasn’t until October that I was able to capture this scene of three of the family members from the bay. I had strolled down to the beach on a beautiful, autumn morning and was walking along the rocky shore when I noticed two heads peeking up out of the water. There was a minus tide so the pair of pups I spotted were quite close and so, I hid behind a big boulder to watch them. Soon, they slid back into the water and for a while, I couldn’t see where they’d gone. I decided to sit on my boulder-hide and just wait while I soaked up that incredible sunshine and watched the ducks glide by. Then, I spotted three heads moving towards some partially submerged boulders further along the shore. I hurried a little with my big lens, but tried not to move too quickly. Finally, I stopped and watched in amazement as the Mama dragged a big flounder with her as she crawled up onto one of the “islets”, her two young ones joining her soon afterwards. I didn’t try to get too close as I knew from experience, the otters would swim away. The family let me stay and photograph them for a good 15 minutes before my heron buddy came swooping in to claim his perch. This was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had photographing the wonderful wildlife all around us. Thank you to that friendly otter family for letting me capture this portrait!