Some crossings are used so often they have worn trails. Areas visited frequently or for long periods of time are fairly obvious. Otters tend to drag large fish onto the shoreline or a logjam to dine. Scales, heads and other uneaten parts are left behind. Small piles of leaves or grass are sometimes raked into a mound and marked with droppings or a thick yellowish fluid from their anal glands.
Otters are graceful and powerful swimmers.
Only the head and shoulders show as they swim along the water's surface. They might swim like this for fairly long distances or take short, regular dives as they go. They can stay submerged for 3-4 minutes and swim up to a quarter mile underwater. They have a bounding or loping gait on land. It's not unusual for otters to approach within a few feet of a boat or a person on shore because they're curious and near-sighted.