OtterCam in July

This was the sixth consecutive month I have set the cameras and again I got recordings of an otter.  Again she was alone so I wonder if she has new pups somewhere.  I'll keep going with the monthly recordings and hope to see pups with her at some stage.

On the first two nights I put one camera on an old abandoned boardwalk but it proved impossible to hide the sardines. From the recordings I can see that the bait was snaffled by magpies minutes after I left so the poor otter had only the scent of what had been.  Still she did pass by, both times in daylight.

On the second occasion she seemed to attack the secondary infrared LED light which was off to the right but it doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and it was screwed down so she couldn't knock it into the water.

The other camera was nearby in the reedbed and had more success.  Initially I didn't hide the food here so again it was stolen by magpies.

On the third night I put both cameras in the reeds looking towards the same spot with an auxiliary infrared light source. This time I hid the food from prying eyes.  Otters of course hunt by scent so she was onto it straight away.  It was dusk and this camera has already switched to infrared mode.

There were several recordings of the otter eating which aren't very exciting.  This clip recorded was as she was leaving.

Here is the view from the other camera.  It was still in daytime mode, perhaps misled by the light in the sky, and the picture is very grainy.

After three nights recording I ended up with four good video recordings of about 15 seconds each.  I reckon the expeditions to install, reset, rebait and retrieve the cameras take up to 90 minutes each so with editing and processing time the input to output time ratio is over 400 to 1!  And my internet connection is so slow that it takes another hour to upload the 60 seconds so that you can see it on this blog.  Still, I enjoy every minute!