Catching up with OtterCam

The otters have been busy over the past couple of weeks while I have been posting end-of-year reviews so there is a bit to catch up on.  The dog is still maintaining a high profile and the pup is still with the mother but all three are very aware of each and they often show on the cameras only a few minutes apart.  The narrow path down to the water where the cameras are is obviously a favourite sprainting point to leave and receive smelly messages.  Here is the dog otter leaving his calling card.

Here are the mother and pup.  On this occasion I made the mistake of leaving one camera where another could see it but it does show how the otters check out the cameras as they pass.

The next video shows the dog on patrol again.

A few minutes later the mother & pup appeared.  Mother went up the bank to leave a message of her own while the pup swam on by.  I am getting practice in editing the recordings from all four cameras into one sequence but here it was very difficult because there was simultaneous action which made it impossible to join them without missing out on what was going on.  In the end I have included the same sequence from all four cameras so you can see what happened and the difficulty in editing.

Here is another example when mother and pup ran down to the water just as a heron was coming in to land, judging by its reflection.  I expect the heron did an emergency overshoot when it saw the otters.  It isn't easy to cut from one camera to another so here are all three (the fourth had a flat battery).   The top two cameras were in infrared mode but there was enough light for colour on the bottom one.

And this is the spraint, or otter poo, from video 4 above, a few days later.  You can see how it is mostly fish scales and bones.  It is said to have a characteristic scent but I didn't try.  Spraints are usually left in places where other otters will encounter them so everyone knows who is out and about.