Young Otter

The topic of conversation during most morning walks is “I wonder when we will see the otters again?”.  It has been months since we very briefly spotted 2 otters swimming in the river.  Today, it all to changed!

We spotted a tail flicking out of the water in a corner of the river occupied by a heron and little egret.  It looked small, very small but this young otter seemed apt at fishing and swimming.  It moved quickly and ate at least 7 or 8 fish/eels while we watched.

After an hour, I walked ahead and hid in a well camouflaged position on the riverbank.  I waited and hoped the otter would pass by and it did ….  I did my best to conceal myself behind a willow tree, this was fine even though at times I was hindered by many shoots sprouting from the trunk which blocked my view.  The young otter fished, rested and fished again giving me some nice shots.

Then having caught a trout it decided to devour this one on land rather than struggle to eat it in the water.  It swam directly towards me, left the water on the other side of the willow tree and ate for about 5 minutes.  I was so close but the otter had no idea the entire time.  it then return to the water and I enjoyed another 30 minutes and close quarters.

There are a few more photos from this day and other otter encounters on my Flickr photostream – click here