There is a beautiful river, very close to my home called the River Stour. I took these shots a couple of days ago. There is so much wildlife that is often visible.
The river often floods during winter. This post is to measure how bad the floods are and you can see that it gets pretty high!
The river is a popular destination with wildlife photographers. the picture below shows one of these taking a shot of a heron in the reeds. It looked like a great shot but unfortunately my camera could not get the shot (it was too far off).
I have walked along the river numerous times and I am aware that there are several wild otters that live on the river banks. If you were not aware, this sign on some fencing makes it pretty obvious:
Having said that, I have never seen an otter in all the times I have walked along the river. I have been told numerous times that they are there but I have never seen them, until this time. I was trying to get a shot of a duck and two ducklings when I saw some movement on the bank.
Now I appreciate this is a very poor shot, to the extent that you could dispute there was anything there, but I was so excited when I saw it, even though it was only for a couple of seconds. I have never seen a wild otter before and this made my entire week. I have blown up the image above so you can see it. I accept it looks like a hot dog sausage but after I took this it disappeared and did not reappear, despite me waiting for an hour or so. It has really inspired me to keep trying and possibly invest in a bttter lens!
It is the brown streak in the centre of the shot!!