This week has been a little different. The weather has been challenging; we have had strong winds for over 2 weeks now, with a couple of trees brought down. But an otter family has turned up. In October and November we had occasional otter sightings, probably a male, but the return of a mother and cubs at this time of year follows the pattern of previous years.
Last Sunday I saw a mother and cub briefly, alerted by the weak piping whistle that cubs make, but on Tuesday we had a 30 minute view of a mother and two cubs. The cubs were about half the length of the mother and therefore probably less than a couple of months old.
It was low tide, and quite dark, with the otter family swimming very close to the shore in no more than a metre of water. Almost a training swim.
The family are using a holt at the cliff - heavy sprainting, a dead dogfish and a well used path - and I have put a trail camera there.
No still pictures of the otters because it was too dark, but I have quite a lot of video to do something with.
