“That’s an otter.” The furry brown head slipped below the water just as I realized what I was looking at, leaving behind an ever-expanding set of concentric rings. My wife, perhaps justifiably, figured I was full of shite. After several frustrating minutes of fruitless searching I was beginning to feel like someone who had seen a sasquatch after a few beers, “no, no, I swear I saw it.”
Then, there it was. Three of them actually; frolicking, cavorting, chomping down fish with gusto and generally displaying that uniquely lutrine joy de vivre. They appeared to be herding fish into the chain-link erosion control barriers that line the bank of the heavily manicured, eutrophied waterway formerly known as Putah Creek. Every so often they would look at us and cough disapprovingly.
The wood ducks were not amused. The carp sucked air anxiously. The jumping galls bounced about like gutter punks. The jackrabbits raced to and fro like robotic hares off their tracks. The joggers trotted by powered by Lady GaGa oblivious to it all. All a few hundred meters away from my office on an unseasonably mild late July afternoon.
Man, does this read like an Oryctology post or what?
microecos 
31 July 2009 at 8:10 am
Seriously, Sir, do you have no otter business?
31 July 2009 at 2:35 pm
we were otterly transfixed.
5 August 2009 at 7:21 pm
You know, we saw a river otter (or it might have been a beaver) in Putah Creek down in Winters a few weeks ago, too. Invasion I tells ya.
12 January 2010 at 4:02 pm
Wow, I saw one too today. It was in the area near the Mondavi Center and just west of the Law school. It would dive every time it saw or heard people. I saw only ripples the first couple of times, expecting one of our local cormorants to surface, but I was surprised to see an otter surface and dive. I had never seen one on central campus in 30 years here. I understand they can be found in the real Putah creek.
12 January 2010 at 5:23 pm
I’ve been seeing them with some regularity now (maybe four times since this post) in that general area, most recently a few weeks ago. I guess they are happy enough!