After yesterday's Lapwing and Woodcock at the patch, I returned to Sculcoates this morning. The Moorhens were feeding on the banks of the frozen drain. It was an hour after low tide, so I headed towards the river.
As I was about to cross Wincolmlee, I noticed that the gulls were calling alarmed flying over the river down the bridge. I hid behind the bridge and scanned the mudflats, a flock of Dunlin were feeding on them, another patch tick! Then I notice something else is swimming upstream, and it's not a Cormorant, it's an Otter! (top shot) It is carrying a Flounder, it's white belly gleaming in the dull, murky light. The Otter emerges every couple of meters, diving down again and swimming under water, presumably carrying its bounty to a safe place to eat it. I somehow manage to take a few shots, hands shaking, I can't believe I have finally seen and photographed an Otter at the patch, I really couldn't have been luckier! I must remember it's not always raptors the gulls respond too, they don't like Otters either.
As the Otter disappears from view behind the bend in the river, I focus on the Dunlin, a species that I rarely see inland. There are nine of them, when I spot them they are feeding on the mud, then they run towards the water, and bathe and drink. All but two disappear with the commotion that follows the Otter upstream. Two stay, and take a rest by a Redshank. The cold weather and widespread frozen water bodies are really pushing birds towards unfrozen bodies of water.
2 comments:
Congratulations on finding the otter, quite a coup in a narrow drain.
Thank you Ralph, the Otter was actually in the River Hull. They are known to use the urban stretch of the river, and I've seen their prints by the same bridge before, but it is lucky indeed to see one, my year's highlight!
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