bukaymedia.com/ I have visited Tennessee Beach in Mill Valley, CA. for decades on about a monthly basis and never saw a River Otter until Nov. 24, 2013. I was fortunate to capture this footage with my cell phone before the otters swam away into a patch of cattails in the stream leading to the beach. What surprised me was that there were lots of people (70-100) on the beach in plain view of the otters! The otters seemed a bit curious and only retreated when a number of people approached them. Later, visitors reported that they came back out on the beach again. I wonder if they wanted to cross the sandy beach to get to the ocean to catch a meal. The following day, I caught a glimpse of the two otters scurrying across the beach from the ocean on their way back to the protection of the marshy habitat where they hide. I suspect that they were foraging in the ocean.
If you would like to learn more about the comeback of river otters to the San Francisco Bay Area, please visit www.riverotterecology.org/.