Once in 20 Years
Two decades.
My eyes have scanned the surface of this lake for more than 20 years.
Why? There is always beauty.
There is seasonal beauty, like the autumn gold of the Aspen trees across the water. Then follows the cold intense white of winter snow, the bright, new green of spring and the sparkle of water diamonds on the surface in summer. In any season, a flock of ducks or Canada geese may fill the air above the water with wing beats and wild calls. There is always beauty here.
There is always mystery here. In the middle of this narrow sparkling body, the water is more than thirty feet deep. There are always fish suspended in these depths. What happens there is unseen a delicious mystery. Over the years, my eyes have enjoyed the sight of a loon fishing there. Migratory birds are mystery with feathers. Wood ducks find the quiet shore at the east end a place to rest. The cottonwoods on the north shore have next boxes for them. The last home owner on this shore must enjoy seeing broods of young wood ducks jump from the nest boxes to the ground. So, do I.
Yes, there is beauty and mystery to be found at this little lake. Really its just a long bay of water made from the diverted water of the Ottertail River. This diversion of water dates back to the 1920s. It created the little lake known today as Wright Lake. The diverted water served two purposes until 2021: cool the cooling towers for a power company hydro-electric plant and provide drinking water for the city of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The power company has since closed the power plant. But the city need for water is undiminished. There is more here than beauty and mystery.
It does not take a large body of water. Any size body of water attracts life. There is always something new to look at or discover when you spend time near water. I did that yesterday. The best way to get to this little lake is to walk there. That way all of the sounds, sights, scents, and touch of the wind on your skin can be experienced.
Two decades is long enough to learn a few life lessons. One of them is healthy and satisfying. Here it is-time outside is never wasted. One of the best ways to get time outside is to walk. Walking allows us to see and hear the events happening around us. There are times when the urge to walk propels me outside-even on cold days like yesterday.
There is another thing about time outside. There are always surprises. Some small, then, there are times there is no surprise. Those are rare. There are times when the surprise is big, let’s call them memory etching events.
Permit me just one more life lesson: bring a camera. Some surprises are completely photogenic. Photos reveal details our eyes cannot pick up. A photo seals the surprise and verifies it.
Now for the once in two decades event…
Yesterday I took a walk.
I brought my camera.
I did not expect the surprise I found.
You’ll be surprised too.
First, it was cold and windy. It felt like winter. Dressed for the weather, my response was enjoyment of the brisk air. I carried the camera because experience whispered, “you’ll be sorry of you leave it in the bag.” Glad I listened. My plan was a brisk walk with possibly a photo that later I would decide to delete. It didn’t turn out that way. This little lake, Wright Lake, has for 20 years provided regular doses of beauty and mystery. Never before had it provided a surprise like the one I was about to experience.
As I said, I was planning to walk on passed the lake, maybe walk for two miles if things worked out. As I got to the end of the lake, I glanced out onto the early ice. There was an animal on the ice. Brown in color, my first impression was “muskrat.” Almost as soon as I guessed muskrat, the thought came that this brown animal was too big. While I considered what brown animal might be on the first ice of Wright Lake, a second one appeared. Together, the two brown animals made identification easy. They were otters. Otters in the waters of the Ottertail. This was my first view of Otters on Wright Lake in two decades.
I began to work my way closer without disturbing them. As I spread out the legs of the tripod and extended them my eyes scanned the ice closer to shore. There weren’t only two…there were four. Now, look at the photos with me. They tell the story.
( Look above)…These were the first two my eyes picked up. Do you see the closest one with its head up? It knew I was there-up on the bank. Even concealed in the edge of the trees, the otters knew where I was. But fishing was good. They stayed.
Next my eyes moved to the otter in the picture below. It was just east of the first two. It came up through an otter sized hole in the ice. I could see it had something in its mouth. I knew that later, with the photo on the computer, I could identify what it was. This otter had a salamander…a big salamander. I am not a wildlife photographer. Instead, my photos help me understand nature. The camera slows me down, makes me more observant.
After attempting to discover what the lone otter had caught and dropped on the ice, movement below me and to the left attracted my attention. Just before I saw these two together (photo below), I heard and then saw a man with a dog walking down the grassy expanse behind me and across the road. He was talking to his dog. The otters heard him too. Though they could not see them because the steep slope hid them from view, both otters paused in their fishing to listen. I watched the two nearest to shore until they disappeared under the ice. Otters can hold their breath for 8 minutes you know.
Turning to my right, I saw the two farthest out had both caught something. Both were working on digesting small sunfish. No surprise there, fish are one of the main items in an otter’s food supply. Today salamanders were available. They were eating them too. With a high metabolism, otters eat nearly 15% of their weight each day. Adults weigh between 11 and 30 pounds. That just means it takes a lot of food to supply the otter’s daily calorie intake. Fish, salamanders, turtles, snakes, crayfish and frogs fuel an otter. And, exactly what they eat depends on where the otter habitat is. In Ottertail water, fish are abundant. If you look closely at the far otter, you can just make out the mouth of the fish. (photo below)
The final photo (below) shows a salamander on the ice. It’s a large one. I never saw this animal eat the salamander. But, isn’t that the reason it caught it? They can swim at speeds between 5-7 mph. You are not impressed, I can tell. But remember this speed is fast enough to catch fish…and surprise-even an occasional muskrat.
So…What is the message of this otter story?
Go outside! Whatever the weather, there is a surprise waiting for you.
Our loving Creator puts them there, and they are too good to miss. He gave me four in one day.
He does that for everyone. Repeat…He does that for everyone. But you have to be outside to see them.