This particular mum and two cubs, one of three families along one particular stretch of shore I work, have stayed together well over a year now. One of these families the cubs are now actually coming up on 16 months old and not surprisingly spending long periods away from mum but these guys are slightly younger, still under a year old.
Spent a few hours with them throughout which enjoyed an insight to their daily routine; foraging, , grooming, resting and for the cubs, some play. Unfortunately they were always quite a distance away so the images I managed needed quite a crop- that's often just how it is with photographing otters, the terrain can sometimes offer opportunity to stalk or crawl closer but this open shore constrains that. Beautiful to watch.
Mum lands a sea scorpian with one of cubs in hot pursuit. Interestingly this family in particular seem to specialize in this particular prey with mum catching several good sized every time Iv'e been with them this summer.
A good old rough and tumble after foraging and feeding, minutes after this, they were fast asleep, which was my time to retreat.
I then continued along the shore to the far end of the range where I suspected one of the other families would be and found them just starting to snuggle down to sleep off a foraging session.
