River Otter

I would never have associated a woodland creek with a river otter.  While exploring the creek that contained the fossils, I began noticing animal tracks along the creek.  Some were raccoon but others I didn't recognize.  I sent an inquiry and photo to the Department of Natural Resources and was surprised to learn the tracks were made by a river otter.  The person at DNR said otters will take day trips up creeks searching for food.  This creek does connect to a larger creek which, in turn, flows into the Patuxent River.

I wondered it it wasn't more than a day trip because every time I would visit the creek, I would see plenty of fresh tracks, even directly following heavy rain.  It meant either the otter was visiting very frequently or it was living nearby even if temporarily.

I saw some evidence of what I would guess an otter's den would look like on a high bank and the opening seemed to be a just about the right size.  When I consider the usual variety of animals known to inhabit these woods, otter den seems like a pretty good guess.  Especially when you consider how it is situated.

As far as food in the creek, there didn't seem to be much to eat.  I never saw any fish.  There may have been some crayfish present, but I never saw any - despite turning over quite a few stones. On a couple of occasions, though, I did see small elvers, the young of the American eel.  I'm pretty sure they would be on a river otter's menu.  More about them tomorrow.