Otter at Cockenzie 25 Jan 2014

A rather wet day for a long walk in Lothian, but I was very glad that I persisted. In total 27 miles walked from Liberton to Port Seton and back again. The highlights were mammalian, with three Red Foxes in the dark and then this fantastic River Otter in the sea off the Cockenzie Power Station promenade. Its appearance coincided with some of the heaviest rain of the day and as I watched it fish it soon came up with a scorpionfish. After posing for a few shots it made a beeline for the harbour area to the East and I lost it as I rushed to get my camera back into its drybag...

This young Kittiwake did a flypast as I was waiting for the Otter to reappear

River Otter off Musselburgh

I arrived at Musselburgh sea wall today just at the right time today. Another observer had just found an Otter offshore. We scoped it as it headed in the general direction towards Fisherrow Harbour. Distant views for me - but enough to get good looks at its head tail and body out of the water each time it surfaced and dived. We rushed around towards the harbour by car but sadly could not relocate it.

My best River Otter sighting of the year is shown above - an amazing, prolonged close view of an individual feeding at very close range in a river in Andalucia in July. A few minutes later I also saw my first ever Black Stork!

More otter shots

This interaction was easily the highlight of my weekend - a Black-headed Gull swooping in to see whether an otter at Duddingston Loch had left it any fish scraps. The answer seemed to be no...

While this was an exceptionally prolonged view of an otter in Edinburgh, it wasn't the best view of an otter that I have had this year. Here is another shot from that encounter on Berneray during the spring. I am now very glad that I took this iphone shot of my imac screen to text to a mate - as I have since lost the original jpeg on a crashed disk :(. That is a scorpion fish by the way.

Otters and Black-headed Gulls at Duddingston Loch

Watched a couple of otters fishing in Duddingston Loch this morning. One was in view for several hours - which was fantastic - especially since these were my first Lothian otters! This one caught a decent sized fish (any ideas?) and that brought the gulls in hoping for scraps.

Otter on Berneray

This uncropped shot was taken during one of the most exciting wildlife encounters I have ever had - an otter choosing to come ashore right alongside to eat a fish. Of course, there is always a challenge - in this case heavy rain and dark cloud. After twenty five minutes of close-up otter action I had several hundred images. Only after the otter sank back into the sea did I realise that I was soaked to the skin and frozen!