Visit by the otters

My day started with John waking me up saying the otters were in the pond.  We tend to have an annual visit to our pond by otters.  Just once a year, they swing by, eat the big fish, and leave.

Fancy trying out the canoe?

Daddy Otter

Playing hide and seek under the dock

Yummy breakfast

This time however - there were little guys too! Two parents and three little otters all arrived at 7am for breakfast.

As they've eaten all the big fish in previous years, today it was a frog breakfast. We have literally over a thousand frogs in the pond, so losing some to the otters seems OK.

I think this was the parent who taught Smiler to smile

They were all lovely to watch as they went about their way - but one in particular caught our eye. We called him Smiler the otter - as his bottom teeth tended to stick out of his mouth, like he had a big grin.  I'm not sure if this was because he was a greedy gobbler, but he definitely ate more than the others.

At one stage, he was busy hanging out by the water lily, eating as many frogs as he could, when the rest of the family went down the other end of the pond.

Suddenly he noticed they were gone!  Agh! He started swimming around in circles, very distressed and crying very loudly.  Poor little Smiler!  The others watched him at a distance, from the duck house,  but didn't shout back!

Hello! Anyone home?

Where's Smiler gone?

I thought it was a bit mean, but John reckoned he probably did this quite often and his parents were fed up with him!!!

His cries got louder and he's swimming frantically, but then saw them did a big dive to go towards them.

He didn't learn his lesson however, as he just went back to frog eating at the lilies while the family decided breakfast was over. They then went off to head back to the creek but Smiler was too busy eating and didn't notice them!

"Ok, time to go"

"where is that pesky Smiler?"

In the end, they had to come and get him so they could all leave together!

"Ok, I'm coming"

I hope you enjoy the photos of our little otter family.  Let me know if you see Smiler at your pond - you'll be sure to recognize him :-D