Friday, December 11, 2009

Otter!

Three otter visited the beaver haul-out, resulting in the photos above.
These are some of the best otter photos I've been able to capture.
Normally they move so fast that I'm lucky to get a bit of tail in the
frame. One winter I set up a camera on a trail where I'd found otter
slides. I got a series of blank photos on a snowy night, but each
subsequent frame had a new otter slide right across the photo. Remote
cameras take 2-3 seconds to wake up, focus, and take the picture. So
you either need to move the camera back so to capture the entire area an
animal might move through in that time, or you need to find a location
where the animal slows down or pauses.

5 comments:

  1. Very cool. What was the time stamp? Lydia

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  2. These images are fantastic. I'm so glad that I found this blog.

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  3. Terrific photos, Dan. The otters really look like they're posing in that first shot. I think I've asked you this before, but ... Will these animals ultimately become annoyed with or bothered by the camera to the point where they start to shy away from the site?

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  4. Some animals don't seem to mind the camera at all, and ignore it. Others get curious and investigate [or devour] the camera. And, yes, some are probably less likely to return to that spot due to the camera's presence.

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  5. Hopefully the work we do to educate, inform, and inspire more than balances whatever harmful impact we have by spying with our cameras and traipsing through critical habitat.

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