There's definitely something in the water!

Yesterday morning I arose fairly early and noticed the weather was fairly nice, bright and calm, not the predicted drizzle. I headed out for a morning stroll around Strumpy.
Bird-wise it was fairly quiet but I had an amazing count of Otters, more than I have ever seen in a morning.

After walking through the woodland trail I arrived at the puphouse, the first view of the river gave me very good views of a dog otter swimming alongside me, seemingly not taking a lot of notice of me which was surprising as I was quite exposed. After a few minutes of watching I realised there was a smaller looking (female?) swimming on the other side of the bank, she then went onto the bank and the male swam quickly over to her. They then had a fight or mated (difficult to tell with some animals!?) there was a lot of noise and splashing for about 5 mins in the shallows, then all went quiet and they headed in-land.

Dog otter

I moved on to the sluice where I happened upon the (different) adult female with her two cubs, they showed very well for just over 5 mins at a range of 10-15 metres, fantastic!

Mother with 2 cubs, plus a video of them playing. (pity about the words in the middle!!)

Then on the way back down sandy wall I came face to face with another Otter, an even better view this time as it was out of the water, I was waching this for about 30 seconds only but managed a shot or two, I was mainly eyeballing it through the bins, quite an experience.





I assume that at this time of the year there are a lot of territorial arguments and a general movement of Otters throughout the countryside? I saw at least 5 individuals but would not be at all surprised if the total was 6, a higher number than I thought were present on the reserve.
Great morning where I just couldn't stop seeing Otters, back for breakfast by 9.00 too!