River Otters in Redwood National Park, California

Each day holds a surprise. For me, the surprise was river otters in Redwood National Park, California. For the river otters, the surprise was me.

After a fabulous day of driving the Oregon coast, Ray and I made it to California and celebrated with a walk on the first beach that had a convenient roadside pull off to accommodate the RV.

It was called False Klamath Cove and it’s just inside Redwood National Park, California.

It was a bit stormy and cool, but just what you would expect in northern California in November.

I was making photos of the incredible surf and making my way down the beach when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move. River otters! In a lagoon that I didn’t even know was there.

They were on the beach, but after they spotted me they quickly went back to the relative safety of the cold lagoon. I crouched down so the slight hill of sand would hide me while I quickly switched lenses to my telephoto for a better view.

When I poked my head back up, the river otters had made their way to a nearby log. I approached slowly, they watched me, and allowed me to make these photos. They are quite the posers!

I made all of these photos with my Sony A6000 and the 55-210mm lens. I made the first photo at ISO200, but then quickly adjusted the ISO to 800 to allow me a faster shutter speed. I always like to shoot wildlife at a minimum of 1/500th of a second to freeze any motion.

I love discovering things through my photography. Because of photography, I am always on the lookout and the more I look the more I find.