Sunday 6 December 2020

Otterly Brilliant

 Its been a long while since my last blog post but I now return with some exciting observations. Recently I have been filming using my Mostela near the river to try and observe Shrews, this  worked well and I got some nice shots of the small mammals, wren and grey squirrel that visited.

 However I did get one unexpected visitor...


This kept up for several days with the Otter sticking its head in every now and again. I got a second camera and placed it outside to get a better look and started to get lots and lots of shots of at least 2 otters visiting the site.

As time progressed I noticed more marking behaviour and fresh spraints. These spraints I dissected to reveal, Carp, Perch and Roach scales, so they are obviously eating well.


They visit the site usually after dark often early in the morning and so far as of today, 6th Dec have been visiting every 2-4 days each week. This indicates a resident population using this stretch of the river, now they may just over winter here but it is my hope that they will remain. The site is quiet, away from people and with abundant fish to feed on, there are also several good locations for holts.

They seem particularly interested in the broken willow tree and they seem to enjoy climbing it and exploring the hole that runs through it.




I hope to continue to record otter on the camera and may reposition to see if I can get them swimming and emerging from the water.



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