Today we have wildlife photos from reader Curt Hall, whose narrative and captions are indented. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
I’m fortunate to live near Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, near the Texas-Oklahoma border on the southern shore of Lake Texoma.
Hagerman is primarily known for the numerous bird species which live on the refuge either year round or as a part of a yearly migration journey. Here are a couple recent bird shots from the Refuge:
An American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) watches a gaggle of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) take off.
Numerous birds beneath beautiful sunrise clouds. Those present include at least Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), Great Egret (Ardea alba), Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi), and one or two unknown duck species.
However, I mainly wanted to share a sequence of images of two non-birds. This sequence ended up good for one and decidedly bad for the other. These were captured when a North American river otter (Lutra canadensis) caught and ate a shortnose gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) a couple dozen feet from me. The otter discovered a large gar in a shallow creek that recently became stranded from the main lake body as the lake level dropped through the dry summer. The otter took advantage of this situation and managed to catch and eat a rather large breakfast.
Muddy otter retreats from an initial swim at the gar:
Otter begins his second foray into the water with gar splashing violently:
Gar continues to flail at the otters approach:
The final splash:
A quick breather before breakfast:
First bite:
Yum!:
Getting full:
I recall from memory :
The starfish, the garfish,
the mackereel, the pickereel,
and the really truly twirly-whirly eel – all the fishes in all the sea he ate with his mouth [ tasty sound with mouth ] — so!
What a wonderful series of photos of the otter catch!
All wonderful photos. Bird shots are beautiful.
Thank you for these early morning photos.
Wow! That is an especially exciting sequence about the otter! Well done!
Thanks for sharing these great shots, Curt! Gars have a lot of fight in them; I caught one many years ago.
Thanks for posting these RWPs, Jerry. Reading about fellow readers’ exploits and adventures is generally the more pleasurable part of my day!
At the Bear River Refuge in Northern Utah, dikes separate areas in which water can be managed independently. It is common for fish to get stranded when an area is drained and bald eagles hang around to scavenge, so it’s a great place to see eagles.