Day 14.358: Evergreen; otters

Unusually, today was a holiday for me, but not for the high-schoolers. Exile #3 stayed home, but Exile #2 and I decided to go to Evergreen Cemetery in Portland where a pair of otters has been living for several weeks. No-one is quite sure how long they will stay in the now-frozen ponds, but they continue to be sighted there.

We parked at the top of the cemetery, so that even if we didn't see the otters, we would have a nice walk down through the park. Once we arrived near the ponds, we soon spotted lots of otter-spotters, most with very long lenses and other serious-looking gear.

Having stood for a while in the cold with no movement to be seen, we decided to do a lap of the pond and head on our way. I was prepared for my only photographic record being a picture of some of the other otter-spotters, but then as we came to the middle of the far side of the pond, out of sight of most of the vantages being used by the others, we saw what we had been hoping for.

It seems I was spotted too

After a little look around and a peer over the log towards the other photographers, that was that:

Except, then this happened:

Probably the other otter, but difficult to be sure

But this is definitely both of them:

And then they both disappeared back under the ice:

It seems from our brief conversations with some more experienced otter-spotters, that they were being less obliging than usual, but it was a great couple of minutes for us and roundly beats our only previous wild otter sighting.