What an otterly lovely day!

What an incredible few minutes I spent on the creek today. I had some leftover chicken scraps and took them over to the creek for the fish and the turtles. You can see by the photo above that it is much narrower because of the 45-day drawdown the county decided to do. It's so low that I'm not sure I can get the kayak in to get up the creek or down around the corner to get to Bear Creek.

I thought I saw a bass jump downstream to my left. Big circles. And then I saw small fish jump and suddenly, there was a head and shoulder and a tail gliding upstream - An otter! What a thrill on this dull, do-nothing day. Then I remembered the camera in my hand, and I shot three stills and this small video clip. The camera is a little point and shoot - my trusty W50. This time I was just too far to get a good video, though sometimes that little workhorse surprises me. I think if you click you can see this in a bigger format.

I have never seen one on the creek, though I've looked for slides and signs of them.

Watch as it approaches the lilypads and then swims around them. There's a bush above a light patch - watch around there - you'll see its ripple and then the head bobbing.

I told my neighbor who has the property two doors up and though he is on a hill, has a bulkhead, a gazebo and a dock, he never uses them. He was amazed. I hope he went down the yard and was able to watch for them if they passed.

What a lovely sight. The only other otters here I see are roadkills.

It wasn't as stunning as Montana, my favorite place in the world, with its wildlife just all over the place, but to see in full view, this small, secretive animal, which is endangered in every state but Florida for the first time in my lifetime, was absolutely phenomenal.

Note: While looking carefully at the three images last night in my editing program, the above image took me by surprise. You can see the one otter on the left, but to the right of it is another circle and the chevron pattern that indicates another otter. So there were a pair of them cruising up the channel!