Otter (1 Viewer)

[Britseye]

Still buzzing this evening from seeing my first ever English Otter this morning. As a schoolboy growing up in 70s Britain I was first interested in mammals before I was ever interested in birds, but at the time, rivers in England were considered so polluted there wasn't much chance of seeing an Otter in any of them. I can think of three encounters I had in Ireland; two on Scottish Isles; but all either briefly, distantly or in poor light, so today's episode on the River Wear for half an hour in bright sunlight at nine-thirty am was particularly poignant for me. I had heard from a passer-by back in December that there had been several sightings on this stretch of river in recent years, but didn't think I was putting anywhere near enough time into looking for them over the course of the last two months. It's nice to be wrong every now and again! B

 

[Nutcracker]

Nice, but not too surprising! I saw an Otter swimming in the Tyne between the Metro Bridge and the High Level Bridge (basically, right in the centre of the city) in February - others have seen them around there regularly too :t:

 

[Britseye]

Nice, but not too surprising! I saw an Otter swimming in the Tyne between the Metro Bridge and the High Level Bridge (basically, right in the centre of the city) in February - others have seen them around there regularly too :t:

Not been there in a long while, but just trying to gain a mental image of the location: not much bankside vegetation there, I imagine? And river still fairly wide at that point, too, I should think?

 

[Nutcracker]

Not been there in a long while, but just trying to gain a mental image of the location: not much bankside vegetation there, I imagine? And river still fairly wide at that point, too, I should think?

None at all! Just a vertical wall straight down into the water; tidal at this point too (so height of the wall varies from about 2 m at high tide, to 6-7 m at low tide). Google street view shows the habitat well (if a bit tilted!) - my otter was exactly at the middle of this viewpoint, quite close in to the wall :eek!:

 

[Britseye]

Remarkable. Thanks for going the extra mile to show the street pic. Not quite as idyllic as the quiet little stretch of River Wear I saw mine on!

 

[FloatCopper]

That's excellent. So fun.

We have north american river otters in upper Michigan. I guess not even all that rare in certain areas. But I have never seen one. I would love to.

Congratulations on seeing yours!