This all started with my annual wild goose chase, looking for golden-ringed dragonflies. On a tiny burn in Northumberland I thought I saw a small wake in the water ahead of me. Hoping it was a water vole I returned a few days later with a trail camera and an apple. The burn is less than 1m across in most places and is about 0.5m below the surface of the field so it was quite difficult to find somewhere to put the camera.
Over three days the camera showed no sign of a water vole but did show a larger mammal. The video is very short so I have added a slow motion replay. The two halves of apple are in the background - untouched.
It was only a glimpse but quite an exciting find. I next moved about 5km downstream where the burn is a bit wider and there I found several rocks with the remains of white-clawed crayfish.
And on two rocks nearby I found spraint, confirmation that it was an otter that had been eating the crayfish.
The next step was to set up a camera to watch the rock
and on two of the next three misty nights an otter appeared. The first of these looks larger to me so I think these were two different animals.
I also had another camera about 100m upstream but unfortunately its batteries were about to fail. When that happens it records for only about a second but it detected an otter 30 minutes before the first one above so I guess this was the same animal working its way down the burn.
This must be a marvellous place for an otter, far from people and with clean water and plenty of trout and crayfish. I may try again at some point to see if there is better evidence of more than one.
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