Otter

Day 217 #365DaysWild 

Rutland Water nature reserve today.

Always a good day - especially so seeing scaup and striking male Smew.

Eclipsed by our first ever English otter. First loafing around on his back then, later, in a series of arcing loops like a dolphin. Always go birding with someone like my friend Linda whose visual acuity revealed the otter twice!

Exhilarating.

A good news story as their numbers recover from the catastrophic effects of organo-chlorine poisoning and habitat destruction.

Some evidence too that where otters live, the introduced American mink that are responsible for the deadly destruction of native water voles have been driven out.