Loch Ness Monster!?

It was such a beautiful afternoon when I got home that I decided to take the cats out with me for some fresh air, sunshine, walk around the yard to see what's starting to sprout, etc... I lifted up one of last fall's rotting pumpkins by the compost and saw an interesting site - a lone little worm crawling between the preserved pumpkin rind and the matted leaves below. Doesn't seem like the most exciting place for a worm to be, but I went inside, got the camera, and took his picture. This photo really doesn't do justice to the interesting visual contrasts I was seeing, but there was a splash in the pond less than 10 feet away and it distracted me from trying to get a better picture...


Good thing I had my camera with me - I think I spotted the Loch Ness Monster!!!!


I quickly switched to video mode just to catch a glimpse of "Nessie" diving...




(Argh, I have much better quality video here, but each time I try to post it to YouTube it fails, so I compress it and it looks fine, then I upload it to YouTube and it looks bad...what's up with that?)

My guess is it's a young sea otter (see mention of them being reintroduced in the area back in 1986). Honestly, I thought they'd be in larger or moving bodies of water. Brett thought they were only in sea water. This little fella (or girl?) is just over a foot long, nose to tail, I would guess. I sat there waiting a loooong time, and only when I got bored/distracted and then looked back did I realize he was back slithering around the surface of the water, and then would dive again. After awhile he was up in the cattails (which are pretty much all collapsed down into the water at this point), nosing around - I could barely see him, and Tucker was real curious (AND cautious - not getting too close!), and then he splashed back under water again.

Hm...I wonder if he'll be a repeat visitor.