And a Belted Kingfisher, Too

When strangers ask me if I’m a bird photographer, my usual reply is that I’m a wildlife photographer and that birds are just the easiest form of wildlife to find. Of course, I’m not really a wildlife photographer, either. Maybe I come closest to being a nature photographer, at least if you count people as part of nature.

If I were a wildlife photographer, though, my favorite subject would have to be River Otters, and, conveniently, we observed a river otter laying on the dock at Fort Worden precisely where we saw the river otter family the last time we visited. This one seemed to be enjoying a recent meal laying in the warm sunshine.

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Of course, you can only take so many pictures of a sleeping otter, so I went to the other side of the dock to see what else might be around. Before long I noticed an otter swimming out into the sound, diving,

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and looking around when it surfaced.

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Eventually I tired of waiting for it to resurface, and I went back to birding. When I walked around the building, Leslie pointed out that the otter had returned with a meal.

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I must admit I was a little surprised how well this “river” otter adapted to the Puget Sound.

To cap the whole wonderful day off, I also got a shot of Port Townsend’s resident Belted Kingfisher resting on exactly the same pier he was resting on a month ago when we were here.

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3 thoughts on “And a Belted Kingfisher, Too”

  1. Love seeing those River Otters. They really are fun to watch and photograph. Great shots of them, and of that beautiful Kingfisher.

  2. Well done! Kingfishers are among the most difficult birds to capture on film, at least when I try. They tend to fly away and into trees where they can stay mostly out of sight. River otters, cute as they often are when resting or playing, do have a a fierce side as well.

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