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Posted on Apr 8, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
An interesting morning walk today. We spotted an otter in the river that runs through the centre of our town. We lost it almost immediately and although I was keen to hang around to search for it Belinda persuaded me we should walk towards the usual spot 20 minutes away. Reluctantly I agreed and as usual she was proved right…. The otter appeared swimming close to the bank and attempted to hunt a pair of mallard ducks (unsuccessfully, the male mallard even retaliated). It then climbed the sandy bank, entered some bushes and retrieved a cached lamprey. Kindly it returned to the riverside dragging the huge lamprey and ate for over 30 minutes while we watched and photographed from some 30m opposite. It was completely unaware of our presence which bodes well for future observing. Finally a good test for the new camera. Share...
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Posted on Apr 6, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
Same time, same place. A very brief glimpse of an otter 30m opposite our observation point. I managed to get a shot, grainy but it’s a record. Share...
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Posted on Apr 1, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
Its been an anxious 6 week gap in watching the otters. A visit to the UK and illness have meant no real concerted effort to observe them on our part. However, all was well again tonight as we spotted 2 different otters at opposite ends of the river that spans the limits of our town. The first was running along a high bank, entered the water briefly and ran back the same way. We were unfortunate to be up wind and it may have detected us. The second sighting was in the centre of town. The otter was standing in a shallow pool searching for prey. It was dark but was easily recognised in the orange glow of the street lights. There were plenty of people, cars and noise which didn’t seem to bother it. Photo below shows the street light reflecting in the river. Shame no silhouetted otter in the frame, one day! Share...
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Posted on Feb 18, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
We saw the otter again in the same area as the previous 4 sightings. This time at 12.20pm and a 40 minute watch. Please excuse the bright blue plastic sheet! I guess it ruins the photo but perhaps demonstrates what our wildlife has to put up with (though in this instance the otter relaxed within the plastic like a hammock for a few minutes, see Picture 9!). This particular piece of plastic has been bugging me since it was caught on branches in the floods of June last year. I would remove it but there is no obvious path to the other side and its too deep to cross by foot. Hopefully the lower river levels this summer will provide an opportunity. The river has been quite high due to recent heavy rain, as you can see the water is brown colour, full of disturbed silt. It was interesting to see the otter making use of a fallen tree in the middle of river whilst fishing. Having caught...
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Posted on Feb 16, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
Okay we are spoilt. Great views again of a female otter this morning. Its nice to be able to say ‘female otter’ and not just ‘otter’. I think the picture below clarifys the matter. When we first sighted the otter I opted to run ahead a little and walked down some steps to the rivers edge, I was well hidden and the otter was coming my way. I could see it through my bins porpoising, tail flicking into the air but it was a way off yet. I lost sight of it and keep checking with Belinda who had remained on the path above. She is not normally the best at explaining the location of birds and animals but was frantically pointing towards the opposite riverbank. I remained clueless much to her annoyance. I thought all was lost as I waited sitting on the bottom step and then all of sudden it appeared. It was difficult to determine if the otter was aware of my presence 20-25m opposite...
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Posted on Feb 14, 2011 in Blog, Otters |
The prey we have most frequently seen the otters eating are eels, which they appear to take with ease. I’ll never forget seeing a mother otter standing in the water watching her 2 cubs, she seems completely untroubled with a small eel squirming desperately in her mouth. Without doubt the most exciting prey we discovered the otter hunting is the lamprey. I knew very little of the lamprey until we saw the otter catch and eat one. They are an ancient species that existed before the time of the dinosaurs. There is more information about lampreys on these pages; https://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/NaturallyScottish/riverrunners/lampreys.asp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey Share...
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