A Christmas Gift of Otters

I am aware that I have written about otters before, my overwhelming desire to actually see a live otter on the Cape, not just their scats, their tracks, their den holes etc. I also have shared with all of you that I am a Yea God sort of person, who looks for God’s glory every day and always seem to find it. It’s goes without saying then, that I am also a “Yippee Christmas” sort of person who revels in the whole season, not just the day. The delight of every ritual that goes with it, the baking, the overly long Christmas letter I burden the world with, the mass production of peanut butter balls. I love it all.

But I also love that each year I can point to a pre-Christmas day that I feel I received a very personal, hand-tailored-by-God-for-me, sort of present. Last year it was coming upon a tree just loaded with Cedar Waxwings on a snowy day. Gorgeous, and so abundant I immediately recognized my Christmas gift and thanked God. And this year, it was the amazing gift of otters. I had been thrilled, and a little spooked that in August I had come upon that wonderful noisy otter in the containment pond at the bog. The spooked part was that I had begged to see an otter before I left the Cape, and on that very day we would get the call that would set our exit in motion. So, in my mind, the sighting on that day was a gift, a wonderful gift of answered prayer.

But as you all know, I got to drag my exit out, these three, almost four, months that have seemed like the best gift of all, have just come to an end. But before I left the Cape for the final time, I was given two incredible days of abundant otter sightings right out my window. A pair of otters had taken up residence, at least for the while, just three houses down from where I am on the lake. Remember, this cottage has a wall of windows, so the rising sun, the waking world, the sleeping swans, etc have all been mine to delight in from the moment I get up in the morning, which usually is before dawn.

What a treat, what a thrill, to look out one morning, and catch that distinctive V wake in the water, with a small head and a fast moving tail propelling the animal forward. An OTTER! And then another right behind it! They swam out together to a spot that was a few hundred yards from shore, dove down and then, after I assume, catching a fish, headed back to shore. The trick was they would always be out of sight by the time they made it to land, so I didn’t know if they were taking whatever they had caught to eat it under the dock, or if they had a den or what. But within minutes one or the other would be heading back out to the same place in the water to do that all over again. Swim around under water then beeline it back to shore. They really are such strong and fast swimmers. Amazingly this went on in the morning for over an hour. And as the light increased I could see their heads more clearly, but could never make out whether they had a fish in their mouth or not.

So many questions came out of this, unanswered as always, but fascinating all the same. Were they carrying the food back to shore to eat it there, which makes sense, but I was just amazed I could never see it, even though I had a decent look at their heads. Was it clutched in their front paws? Surely it didn’t seem to slow their progress for they were zipping. And how was it that each time, and I amazingly got to see this happen each morning three days running and once, on a rainy day, also at lunch time, how was it that they always went to approximately the same place to hunt? Surely a school of fish moves about, you would have thought there was an underwater Long John Silver’s under there providing a steady source of food. Oh, to have an underwater camera set up! And to have had the nerve to go trespassing and see where they were heading. But it is private property, so even under the cover of darkness, I didn’t think I should go lurking about in their yards. It shall just have to remain a mystery. But clearly this is my Christmas gift from above, such an abundance of otter sightings on the very last few days I was there. Thank you God!

Again this is one of those more personal essays than one loaded with enriching facts, but I did learn something new about otters as I read up on their feeding habits. Their scats are very loose and runny and full of fish scales or crab shells or whatever they ate, we have shared that before, but what I didn’t know is, that they have such a fast digestive system that the whole meal passes through them in an hour. Like the fast digesting Gink of Shel Silverstein lore…

Quick Trip

“We’ve been caught by the quick-digesting Gink,
And now we are dodgin’ his teeth…
And now we are restin’ in his intestine,
And now we’re back out on the street.”

I also know that otters cover a large home range. To assuage their hearty appetite they must cover a lot of ground going from pond to bog to marsh etc in search of food. Unless it is spring and they are having their pups they don’t remain in one spot for that long. So my being treated to days of sightings was such a stupendous gift, with such perfect timing that it is clear to me who the Sender was. Again thank you God!

Although it is true I have left the Cape, serious boo-hoo here, I still have a few Cape blogs bantering around in my brain which I shall try to find time to write, and then, together, we will learn the delights of completely changing habitats and a chance to discover a whole new set of wonders, at least when Internet access and time allow. Meanwhile, Merry Christmas everyone and may some Glory of God presents come your way too, free for the asking. Even with an economy in the tank, God’s gifting ability is never curtailed!