Otters sometimes seem at a loss about what to do when they are eating a large fish. The otter seen here holds it in his mouth by the tail, and grasps the head with his paws and begins ripping. Yet he is in no hurry. Indeed, once the the lackadaisical attitude comes across, I edit the film to the delightful disappearing act back into the water. The poet in me wants to say "cold water," but I've fallen through the pond ice enough times to know that the water below is warmer than the air temperature above which is below freezing.

Winter is full of pleasant surprises. Constrast this video clip with the adventures otters can have with fish in the summer and fall when they often have to swim to a log bobbing in the water so they can half concentrate on eating instead of swimming. In the winter, a hole in the ice has the advantage of providing a convenient table, refrigerated at that, upon which to eat the fish.

And, of course, for an otter, snow is rather fun. They are superior sliders, as this clip after a December snowfall shows: page36