Early afternoon on Tuesday I collected Julian and Andrew from their accommodation at The Swan for an afternoon of birdwatching and general natural history in Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland. After a busy afternoon that produced sightings of Barn Owl (an incredibly obliging bird that we watched hunting for nearly 20minutes), 4 Brown Hares and a Temminck’s Stint amongst a myriad of other birds, flowers and wildlife we headed towards a small pond, dusk, destiny and a date with that elusive predator…
With an 80% success rate searching for Otters since early April (in 4 trips with clients, one trip for the NEWT guides) I was fairly confident…then it got darker, and darker, and darker…and still no sign. A chance break in the clouds reflected in the water surface and visibility improved for a few moments. I’d been concentrating on a pair of the oft-derided Canada Geese for a few minutes, because they were standing very alert, when they began cackling. A quick scan along the water’s edge…and was that an otter, distantly in the gloom? or were my eyes playing those tricks that you often have in the last light of the day? As it surfaced again, before swimming right by, I reflected on the effort that we’d all been putting in, in the failing light, and the reward for that effort as it’s final act before vanishing into the darkness of a reedbed was to feed just a few metres away, with it’s tail waggling about above the water.