Driving down the road Racine says, "There is an otter". So I pulled pulled of the road, parked and waited till the traffic had passed. Camera in hand I scooted across the road, all the while watching the otter scurry along the ditch to a culvert under a driveway. Seeing my chance, I hurried as best I could to a point 12 feet away from the culvert opening (down wind), waiting for the otter to emerge heading away from me. Focus was set on the water at the culvert and sure enough the otter emerged. Snapping a few shots as it headed away, it traveled approximately 60-70 feet down the ditch occasionally turning sideways to enable a good profile shot with 'EYE'. The otter was going further than I could run to catch up, so I made a noise with my mouth (kind of a chirp) and the otter stopped dead-in-its-tracks. It looked to the side, looked back at me, and instantly came CHARGING towards me. AAAAHHHHHHHH. At that instant I was able to get one shot of the charge----then turned and ran up stream towards a group of four locals standing along the side of the road watching me.

Sixty four years old never felt so S L O W . Suddenly I felt I was going down, instinctively tucked the camera to my chest, met the ground on my right side with a roll, landing sprawled at the feet of the four astonished onlookers. "Are you OK," they asked, as I checked to see if the otter was gnawing on my foot. Yup, OK. "What were you doing?" they asked, and then they were shown the photos I had taken.

This is why when photographing bears, I choose to stay in the car, with the driver having the auto in gear and ready to roll. :O)

Disclaimer: no people, animals, or cameras were harmed in this incident (except for my battle scars).

To see more of our otter and mink images click HERE