Monday, January 06, 2025
A snow shower caught me as I walked through the camp-site, but it had stopped by the time I reached the spit so I got the camera out. I had just counted 13 ringed plovers and four turnstones feeding there, when a dark shape appeared above the bank. That's a large wigeon, I thought - but it was the head of an otter. It gave me a long look and then proceeded to rub its nose in the snow; it left a spraint and then took to the water, swimming across the river to the golf-course spit and causing great consternation among the gulls there.
I watched as it ran up the bank - causing most of the gulls to lift off - and found a patch of snow to roll about in. A few minutes later, a second otter hauled out in much the same place as the first, gave me an old-fashioned look, left a spraint, and set off in pursuit of the first individual. I don't know what sex they were, although I suspect they were male. I've recently noticed a tendency among animal lovers to use the word "they" for an animal when they don't know its sex. I don't do that even of human beings. I'll happily use "he" for a trans man and "she" for a trans woman if that's what he or she wants - but a single person can't be more than one. As for extending this to an animal - "it" will do. It won't be offended. It won't know.
I walked back the way I had come, wanting to stay by the sea - and just beyond a little group of oystercatchers I spotted a dark shape which could only be a purple sandpiper.
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The sandpiper was left alone when the oystercatchers flew off; I took a few pictures, and it was still there when I walked away.
// posted by Christine @ 7:57 AM 
