These clips are all from my Lot at a private Newcomb lake, the Goodnow Flow. Many of my shots in the past were of otters cruising with their noses just above water, not the best. This year I have more clips of them out of the water both because I added more internet cameras and because there was a bevy of three or four visiting additional to a singleton.
The IP cameras are from Reolink (gradually upgrading to RLC-511s) with a 4MP resolution, the handheld camera shots are generally with a Nikon D3400 with a big Sigma zoom lens.
Pre-season Otter visits at a Newcomb lakeside cottage
This year, like last, the stream was visited by an otter making its way up-stream in the snow. I don’t know where they go when they don’t come back (likewise I have shots of snapping turtles coming downstream from points unknown). Rerun the bit where the otter goes under the ‘bridge’ with the sound up as it takes an unintended dip crashing through the ice. A while later, when the snow had thawed everything was still brown in the Adirondacks, a singleton was cruising around visiting the muddy corner of my Lot and poking around under the stream banks several times. Both seem to be good places to find snacks – that’s true for visitors beyond the otters. You can see there is still ice out on the lake. I do log the ice out dates, it varies and is generally in April but can edge into May.
You can see things have greened up by the May 21 visit (this is about a week after I figure the tree buds normally will pop open). Generally for humans we figure the ‘camp season’ runs from Memorial day to Columbus day weekends. The last basic clip in this set is from June 1, the otter checks under the stream bank, runs up stream and comes back down, probably after finding the waterfalls and in the final part its back out in the little bay linked to the stream.
Otters fish by a Newcomb NY Adirondack cottage
There were a couple of clips of solo otters catching fish. In the one there is a fish heading upstream like ‘a bat out of hell’ but the otter gets that or another fish. I’m not sure whether this was one from the group I had been seeing or a loner separate from them. It’s easier to keep your fish when there is nobody else to tussle over it (see them squabbling over snacks last year)! A bit later a turtle stopped by – I’m thinking it was looking to clean up fishy bits left by the otter.
The lake association keeps stocking trout – despite some of us maintaining that the lake gets too hot in summer to be good trout habitat – these trout maybe keep the otters fed (not that I’m saying what I see the otters catch is trout). The last clip of this set has a group of otters fishing and more in my muddy corner. The ‘and more’ is them harassing a turtle on top of a log, eventually they knock it off but it falls to the other side so I don’t see how that plays out.
Adirondack Otters: 3-4 fish & play by an ADK cabin
You can see why terms for a group of otters include ‘a romp’ and ‘a bevy’ . Most folks seem to think of otters a cute and playful seeing them interact. I see that in some of these clips, but they are also carnivores looking for the next meal. In one of the clips you can see the lake water level is down so my stream is now extended out into the little bay. That is deliberate, its supposed to reduce the risk of flooding. The Columbus day start to the draining is maybe, in my opinion, done a bit early though that is partly because the Columbus day weekend shuffles around a bit. Its the second October Monday and not a fixed day so sometimes the lowering starts well before the weather degrades.
Otters Still Images Slideshow
Click the arrow by the big image to rotate through the four images or wait for the slideshow to progress
Snowy Otter in/on the stream at an Adirondack cabin
Just before Christmas 2022 we had a snow storm which left about 15” of snow on the ground and the stream began to freeze as temperatures then crashed. As a coda to the year, a lone otter was back and I think was checking out some of the usual feeding places below the ‘bridge’. Then it moved upstream but this time it came backdown from the waterfalls just upstream of the top camera and returned to the lake.