Two infrequent visitors came by the river on a couple different mornings last week. Northern River Otters are hit and miss for sightings in my neighborhood, and for many months it’s been miss. So when a pair of them came by the other day it was headline news. They went by pretty quickly, headed upstream. It’s like a kind of liquid “whack-a-mole” trying to catch photos of them wherever they might surface after diving. I try to read the ripples their submerged swims make. It’s good sport.
I got lucky with a quick glance at this onewho popped up briefly.The camera’s technology freezes the structure of the wave created by the otter’s muzzle gliding through the water. On a boat it’s called a “bow wake”. I looked it up. I wonder if each species that swims partially submerged has its own unique bow wake.The scar on the upper lip of this otter can be a form of ID for us otter watchers. When I can grab a photo of the face from the front I sometimes recognize an individual otter by that scar. I think I’ve seen this one before.
Even more infrequent is an appearance by the Green Heron. Every sighting of this often secretive bird is precious and if I’m lucky, about once a year I’ll see one who doesn’t see me first and get to observe the quirky-slow, careful, measured behavior and the striking yet subtle plumage.
One of the smallest in the heron family, this bird weighs about a half pound. It lives in Humboldt year round. The alarm squawk is surprisingly loud. It uses lures to catch food, tossing leaves or sticks into the water to attract fish.This is how the heron looked when I first saw it. I had to do a double take to convince myself it was more than just shadows.The long neck is stockier than you would expect, and the head featherscan be expressive of alarm.
Free Range Photography 
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