My First English Otter

For about the past Month or so, various sightings of Otters have been coming in from my local reserve at Rooksbury, and on several unsuccessful occasions I've staked out the lakes in the hope of seeing the four legged water beasts. So with other photographers starting to get some great shots frequently I thought it about time I gave it another go, so Monday evening I headed down around half 6ish and sat quietly on the waters edge waiting. The occasional Mallard and Coot drifting past the only species disturbing the waters surface. Around 7.55pm I noticed a ripple gaining into a rather large wave at the end of the lake, but nothing braking the surface, as you do I got a little bit more alert, shifting restlessly in my seat. 10mins later and out of nowhere 2 heads appear from beneath an over hanging willow, heading my way. Two adult wild english Otters, my third sighting ever and my first outside of Scotland. MAGIC!

My First English Otters

As they dived I couldn't help but think that was it, as a group of 4 youths shouting and spitting walked the path behind me, positively sure they had disrupted Mr & Mrs Otter for the evening I felt like following them down the path and pushing them in the water, but no sooner had they dispersed before Mr. Otter reappeared and seemingly oblivious to anything else in the water.

He had a good mooch around the edge of the floating reed before swimming out into the middle of the water. No more than 25 ft in-front of me. Im not sure if he heard the shutter firing on my camera or more likely he caught my scent, but I can't complain about the 2 mins or so a totally wild Dog Otter floated before me almost posing.

As the light faded even more and the rain started to fall, both reappeared and soon caught a rather large Carp from the lake, easily the same size as the female, and dragged it off into the overhanging willows to devour. A totally magical and truly unforgettable experience, even if I did find myself questioning why I was stood in the pouring rain!

I returned on Tuesday evening also hoping for a repeat performance and sat with a couple of fellow photographers, no clear sightings, but plenty of noise and squealing as we think the mother was playing with her cub in some foliage on the far side of the lake. a quick glance seemed to confirm this as both entered the water briefly at 8.45pm and neither the same size as the dog Otter I had seen before.

If your interested in some rather better Photographs than my own, Grant a fellow photographer had some great luck yesterday afternoon during a rain shower - check his shots out on .Grant's Facebook.

Also if you fancy being kept up to date with my adventures I'd be very grateful if you liked my FB page. Martin Clay Photography my apologies for the shameless plug.