At Last, an Otter!

I've waited along time but at last I've managed to see an Otter! Every time I have gone looking for one I always come close but always stumble across something else. When I went to France a few summers ago, an English holiday maker was fishing at the edge of a small lake and tolled me there was Otter in the reeds about five minutes before I got there (always like it!). However after an hour what I thought at first thought was an otter turned out to be a Coypu. Then the next year I went back and photographed two adults with three cubs! Then back in Cornwall I saw a Mink at Drift Reservoir. I've read in the log book that people have seen Otters here but were they in fact Mink or there Otters there as well? As I found out in Scotland they can happily live along side each other. In Tobermory there is a very tame Otter which can be seen regularly (I didn't see it or any other Otter in Scotland) the closest I came to was again a Mink. But back in Cornwall, there it was an Otter and on the way back from the county boarder, I stopped of at Porth Reservoir to see the Drake Ring-necked Duck. All in all a good days work and well worth the early start and a brilliant way to end 2009!

By the way Happy New Year to every one!

Top image is the Mink at Drift.

Middle image is the Otter in Cornwall (record shot).

Bottom image is the Coypu in France.