Now this was funny.
Our team on the Zellwood-Mount Dora Christmas Bird Count noticed some commotion in the canal to our left inside the Lake Apopka area. It turns out there were two River Otters that proceeded to swim away behind us.
Then, about 50 meters later, the two--one larger, one smaller--got out of the water, ran up the bank then ran across the road we were on, ran down the bank to the canal on the opposite side which was on our original right.
The larger one, however was not done. He must have said something like, "Look, son, stay here and just watch me. I'll show you how we entertain these humans."
Then, the larger otter ran up the bank onto an impoundment road and .....
..... and proceeded to act like it was in an Olympic trial for the 100 meter dash. Without stopping, this otter .....
..... ran what had to be 100 meters from 50 meters away to 50 meters in front of us, then without pause, ran down from the dike road into the canal on our right.
For those of you familiar with Lake Apopka, at its closest point, the otter was only the distance away of the width of the canal then up the bank so it was quite close.
Why it did this, who knows, but all of us who saw it would like to think it simply wanted to show off and provide some entertainment for the humans.
A female Vermilion Flycatcher was seen also, but try as we did, we couldn't find the Ash-throated Flycatcher, although five of them were seen in an area nearby but not in our zone.
