Otter in McLoughlin Bay

[Shortsighted]

I noticed something break the surface of the still water of the bay.  It was very early (before 7 a.m.) and therefore there wasn't much light.  I took the TC off my lens to bring it back down to 300mm and cranked the ISO to 6400.  Turns out I would have been better served by leaving the TC in place and reducing the ISO a bit because my shutter speed was high enough, it's just that I was paying attention to the [otter] more than my camera settings.  I cropped the grainy image as much as I dare and it seems to me that this animals mussel looks like an otter.  Short snout and I can just make out the ear.  I guess I didn't really believe it, otherwise I would have stayed longer and taken more shots, but like the morning, I wasn't acting too bright.


Looks like an otter to me.  Whatch yah think Ralphy boy?

[Dr. John]

Looks like an otter. Not much else it could be. We saw one in the Don River, near Riverdale Park a few years ago and my friend videoed one at the Brickworks.

[Shortsighted]

Thanks for your insight.  Now that I look at my image again it definitely looks like an otter.  If the bay wasn't so far away from where I'm located in Pickering I would visit more often in order to hopefully get a better view.  It's just that I swear that I can see the gas gauge move when I make the trip out there and back.  Also, there is always a hold-up, a complete slow-down to a stop east of Salem where the new toll HWY starts.  I've never discerned a cause for the slow-down ... it just happens, no matter what day it is, or what time of day.  It's infuriating!  The temperature and humidity are slowly on the rise over the next week so I'm probably not going anywhere.  Even the morning I saw the otter(s) the temp went from 13 degrees to over twenty in just three hours.  First I shiver and then I sweat all in the brief interval that I see a few juvenile warblers.  There were no shorebirds on the beach at all.  The sandpipers, plovers (including the last remaining juvi Piping plover) have all headed south.  Even the gulls and terns and geese were gone.