OtterCam in February

Most of this month's recordings have been in the pipe below the sluice gate and have picked up the dog otter on his rounds.  I haven't seen the mother and pups in the pipe since last autumn and now that the sluice gate has been raised I suspect climbing up it or jumping down would be a bit much for the pups.  The dog otter takes it in his stride.  On average he goes through the pipe about once a night.  Here are a few traverses (and scratchings).

Another session with the cameras in the pipe before Storm Ciara yielded more comings and goings by the dog otter. On one night I had set two cameras about 100m apart.  He found the first one overlooking a stream but was so close to it we don't get a clear view.  Eight minutes later he was sniffing the other camera as he went through the pipe.

Two nights later and he settled down for a good, if rather inelegant, scratch before continuing on his patrol.

On another night he did the patrol in reverse, sniffing the camera while heading south through the culvert and then sniffing the camera in the stream nine minutes later.  This time he seemed to have caught something to eat as he went back into the stream, presumably a small fish.

After Storm Dennis the water was so high I couldn't put cameras near the stream or in the culvert so I tried elsewhere. For the moment I have lost track of the mother and her pups but all that means is that they didn't come ashore in the one place I can position the cameras near the edge of the lake in the three nights I tried.  With the present high water levels they probably have more places to explore so I'll keep trying to track them down.