I had two cameras set near the edge of the lake on three consecutive weekends but only picked up one recording of an otter. This was the mother looking around at 0400. By that time the moorhen and the rats had eaten the sardines and the battery on the auxiliary infrared LED had run flat. And the camera lens was slightly misted up. On the video the mother sniffed around and returned, staying in shot only briefly.
A couple of weeks ago I also had a camera set up in the pipeline for severals days without any recordings being triggered. Despite that, at least one otter was using the pipe, as shown by fresh tracks on the sluice gate, possibly heading in both directions. The water is still fairly deep in the pipe so the otter would have to swim rather than walk through. A wet otter in cold water has very little heat signature and may not be enough to trigger the PIR sensor on the camera, especially if it was going away from the camera.
Yesterday I saw more tracks, very probably of more than one animal (the tracks don't last very long in the water so it probably wasn't just one over several nights).
So last night I set two cameras balanced on bricks in the water between the sluice gate (which is still in a "down" position) and the entrance to the pipe, hoping that the otters wouldn't knock them into the water.
When I checked this morning there were no fresh tracks so I wasn't surprised that the cameras hadn't picked anything up. I'll set them up again tonight and keep trying. If anything turns up I'll post it here.
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