Otter Mating Season?

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 92, low 72)

 

We’re trying to decide when we can leave this miserable hot weather in Florida and head back to the cooler mountains of north  Georgia.  We don’t want to travel during the 4th of July week-end, so maybe afterwards.   Since it’s 21 degrees warmer here than it is in our other “home” in Blairsville, we are certainly anxious!

 

While we were in the Keys, we were lucky enough to personally witness some Loggerhead Sea Turtles mating.  There were two males mating with one poor female who was almost drowned in the process.  It was a violent act and disturbing at times.

In case you missed the blog post, you can see more pictures and read about it HERE

 

 

A few days later, we were back out in the boat and came across dolphin mating.   Just like the turtles, there were more than two individuals involved.

We weren’t able to get quite as close as we did with the turtles, but it was another spectacular sight.

You can see more pictures or read about it HERE

 

 

The otters that live, fish, and play in the pond behind us were out and about early this morning.  Before today, we have only seen two of them this year.  Last year there were four and perhaps they were the offspring.

This morning our friend Heidi said she saw four of them, but then one ran two off, by “barking” and chasing them into the woods.

Have you ever heard an otter bark?   I hadn’t either.  Later when he was by himself, I heard a chirping type noise that sounded more like a bird than an otter.  When he was after the other otter, I heard a definite barking sound.

Unfortunately, we got outside too late to see all four, but we did see two in the water splashing around with one chasing the other.   I feel certain it was another mating we were seeing.  Fortunately, this time there were only two involved and not the “gang bang” we saw with the dolphin and turtles.  :)

 

My photos weren’t great because they were moving so fast.

There was a lot of chasing, both in and out of the water.

In this next picture I see something that is either a foot or another otter? 

Here is a cropped photo.  I think it’s just a foot, but if it was the female my theory of what they were doing would be proved correct.

It was fun watching them and listening to them bark.

 

 

It’s too hot to sit outside except in the mornings and evenings, but we’re out every day after 5ish with our heavy duty fan, our books, and a cocktail or two.

I am reading the book Wild,  From lost to found on the Pacific Coast Trail”  

It’s a true story about a young woman who had some tragedy in her life which led to drug addiction and eventually to hike the PCT in attempt to get her life back on track.

A few days ago we rented the movie from a Redbox and enjoyed it so much that we decided to read the book. I”m enjoying the book just as much as the movie, and can highly recommend it.  I got it on Amazon e-books for only $6.99.    The author is Cheryl Strayed.

 

the end

An Answer to an Age Old Question

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 92, low 76)

 

It’s still hot and humid and we’re still dreaming of heading to Blairsville to the temps that are consistently 15-18 degrees cooler.

 

We haven’t done much exciting, but the otters behind the motorhome have been quite entertaining.

 

The age old question is:

Does a bear  $hi% in the woods?

 

If there was another age old question regarding otters, I  never knew it existed until I was watching them, camera in hand and something interesting happened.

We’ve seen both otters come out on the bank every so often for a few minutes but I haven’t had my camera with me until today.

Today, I was watching them play in the water and apparently they were successful catching their breakfast.

The picture is a bit out of focus, but I think he has a fish.

 

 

They have a pretty good set of teeth on them, don’t they?

 

As I watched, a Little Blue Heron and a juvenile Ibis were wandering around.

 

 

I was patiently waiting for the otters to show themselves more and finally one approached the bank and started to walk out of the water.

He got out and appeared to be sniffing something.

 

He must have found the spot he was looking for because soon he was in the squatting position and going about his business.

I apologize if this is too much information for some of you, but I thought it was kind of interesting when I realized they apparently choose the same area for their “dumping grounds”.

How nice is it that they go to the woodsy side of the water and not to the RV side?

I’ve seen them in that same spot several times and they appeared to be frolicking around.

Apparently not.   Notice all those reddish brown spots?

 

Once he finished his business, he went back to the water in search of more food.

 

Anyway, the answer to the age old question on whether otters $hi# in the water…is  NO. They do not.  :)

They come out of the water, and use the same spot day after day.   So now you know.

 

This is our view from the back of the motorhome.  You can see it’s just a small drainage area but we’ve sure seen a lot of wild life there.

Otters Before Breakfast

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida

When we got up this morning, I noticed the otters were right behind the coach, so we went outside cameras in hand.

They are a little curious and will often swim right over your way and check you out for a minute or two.

Then, pretty soon, it’s back to the business of grooming.

It was a beautiful morning with dew on the bald cypress trees.

Pretty soon, along came a family of Red Wing Blackbirds.  These appear to be juveniles.  They are a little clumsy still.

A blue jay posed nicely.

Little Blue Heron

I snapped this picture last night.  I thought it was interesting with doves in the feeder and the deer in the background.

Mom had a bad day yesterday.  It was day three after her fall and I think it finally caught up with her.  She seems to be feeling better this morning (so far), so hopefully she’s on the mend.  She has finally started using the cane I got her.

The Excitement for the Day

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida

 

There was a sad report on the news this morning.  A 51 year old woman was struck and killed by lightning while walking on a nearby beach.  Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay area is the lightning capitol of North America, and we usually see several fatalities each year.   Most of them are on a sunny day.  Denis Phillips (our favorite local meteorologist) has recently been warning about staying inside if you can hear thunder, even if the skies are blue.  Lightning can travel 13 miles, so please don’t take any chances.  

 

Yesterday was the day our neighbor was having his park model mobile home moved.  He found another park that he liked better, so he decided to have it moved.  It’s not quite as easy as moving an RV.

We are just to the left of the park model.  

I had a good view of all the action right from my living room window.  That’s little Noogie you see in the foreground. She was a little irritated that I made her move to take the picture.

Some of our neighbors brought chairs and had a party at Pat and Ron’s.   It was very hot with very little shade, so I went outside every so often, but for the most part I preferred staying inside in the air conditioning.

Pat and Ron will be moving into this site when they come back from their summer travels. 

The prep work took several hours.  They had a crew of a few guys unhooking the pipes, electrical, and tie down straps.

I mostly stayed inside in the air conditioning, but went out occasionally to check on the party.

One of the workers came over with a large handful of eggs, asking us if we knew what they were from.   I didn’t think to get a picture, because I was more concerned with trying to save the eggs.  The eggs were underneath the house, and under the plastic moisture barrier, laying right on the dirt.

We quickly concluded they were most likely snake eggs, and decided to put them underneath the shed that was staying here.   Of course a few people probably wanted to smash them since they were snake eggs.

Nope…not on my watch!  Just because you don’t personally like snakes, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to exist. 

 

After several hours, the crew finally had the home ready to move, but the tires had made a rut, and they were stuck.  The big truck tried and tried, but he couldn’t get the house to move.

They finally decided to have attach their other truck to the big truck, and give the big truck a little assistance.

They finally got the little house moved onto the street.

They were finally on their way some time after 2pm, and the party broke up.

Here is the after picture of the empty lot.   That’s us on the left.

The park is going to make a campsite out of this site, which will require adding some concrete. 

 

and our new “view” from the living room window.

Someone said they saw a little mouse scurrying around underneath the park model. I sure hope he went into the woods and not into our rig!

 

I spent some time  later on, taking some picture of the locals.

The blue beak on the Little Blue Heron showed up nicely.

These pictures are all taken with my little Canon.  My new lens for the big Canon will arrive today.  I’m anxious to see how it works.

 

After our rains last week, the frog population really seemed to multiply.  Before the rain, we could hear a few bull frogs and some tree frogs, but not too many.  After the rain, it was obvious they had multiplied.  It was almost too noisy to sleep at night for all the croaking! 

Not too good of a thing for someone that’s deathly afraid of frogs!

The otters may have been around before, but we’re thinking they moved in after hearing all the noisy frogs.

They certainly seemed to be feasting on something and now the frog songs have drastically diminished.  I don’t think I’ve heard the bull frogs at all for a few nights.

They were really busy on something on the bank, but I doubt it was a frog.

I have a feeling the otters will move on when the frog supply is gone.

Mr. Cardinal looks pretty posing in the greenery of the bald cypress.

New Wildlife

 

Happy Memorial Day to all the veterans out there.  Your service and sacrifice is much appreciated. 

 

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 87, low 65)

We took a drive over to Tarpon Springs yesterday afternoon for a little photo opportunity.  We lugged both the “big” Canon Rebel, and also the “little” Canon SX50.

With the exception of the picture of Al and Baxter, these are all taken with the "little” Canon.

We went to a park on the Anclote River, found a nice boardwalk trail and just wandered around for a while.

We ended up at the marina where we used to store our boat.  That sure brought back some memories.  Of course, being the Memorial Day week-end, the place was packed, and just the kind of day we always avoided going out in the boat.

The following was a very long distance picture of Anclote Key, which was our favorite offshore island.  We spent many, many hours on this island.   This was just a small portion of the island and there were hundreds of boats docked there.  When we would go, we usually had the island to ourselves.

 

We drove around a while, snapped a few photos and then headed home.

Later that afternoon, a neighbor came by to inform us that there was a family of 4 otters frolicking  in the little pond behind us. 

Actually, the action was a few sites down from us because the portion of the pond  directly behind our site is dry.

I got a few pictures with my little Canon.  My big Canon is still waiting for it’s new zoom lens.

Notice the sharp teeth on this guy?

I have some work to do to get both the dark water and the sun reflected grass, properly exposed.  At that time, I was more interested in capturing the fast moving otters.

A neighbor that lives right behind them, got a few shots of them out of the water and walking on the bank of the pond.  There were so many people around watching them, that I think they got a bit nervous.  I’ll be checking back often.

There is also a bird nest box that was nailed to a tree, directly behind another RV.  Apparently, there is a Bluebird next inside, which surprised me because that’s not supposed to be the kind of location they prefer.

Al says we’re going to get a Bluebird box.  We left all of our boxes in Georgia because we felt the boxes belonged to the birds, not to us.  (even though we paid for them, installed them and kept them safe from predators)

 

More birds from our “back yard.”

Mr. Cardinal posed nicely for me.

 

This is Baxter playing with his new (and favorite) toy.

and this is the end