Otters and Water Voles

Today I wanted to go down to the river to see if I could see and hopefully film the Otters. I would have preferred to have gone down at first light, but other aspects of a normal life intruded and I had to wait until a caller visited in the morning. So I went in to my office to check my email, as I was waiting for the system to boot up, I looked at the sky and there at quite an altitude at least 750 feet was a Red Kite being mobbed by a cloud of crows. The contrast and the altitude showed the wingspan of the Kite off to full advantage. The grace and the effortless flight was a real treat to start the day with.

Once the man from the gas company had carried out the safety inspection of the meter, I was free to get out into the wood. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and headed straight for the spot. As the rainfall has been so low so far this year, I could head for a location that is normally inaccessible. Even so the footing is not that good and I needed to step carefully. As I was approaching my chosen vantage point I saw an otter swimming up the river towards me.
I quickly set up but the otter had disappeared on the far bank. I was not in the perfect position but I had the camera ready all I needed to do was wait. I knew that it was possible that the otter had seen me, but at least the wind was blowing in the right direction. As I waited I was presented with a dilemma. I knew the otter was hidden in the undergrowth, I could just make out her tail, but I could also see a Water Vole swimming upstream towards me. If I moved the camera to film the water vole, I would lose the otter. So I kept my nerve and the camera stayed on the spot where the otter was hiding. I could see she was moving along behind the bush, reeds and grass.

It is at times like these that I learn just why these otters are so difficult to see. She knew I was there and was carefully keeping the vegetation between herself and me. All the time I could see the Water Vole swimming up the river. Partly by listening and partly from seeing the otters tail I kept my eyes on where the otter was. Then suddenly there was a plop as another Water Vole entered the water, this gave the otter the opportunity to do the same and she dived and was gone. Realising that my chance had gone, I swung the camera towards the voles only to see them disappear on the other side of the river. I waited a while but there was no sign of them appearing. So I moved to the location I had been heading for.

I settled down and waited and waited, I stayed for over four hours but no sign of either the otters or the voles. I did try being a arty and filmed the river, but I did not get a single frame of them. As there is heavy rain and high winds forecast, when the rain became more steady than a drizzle, I decided I had better move. Heavy rain could cause me to become cut off. This is why this location can be so good for seeing wildlife as it is genuinely undisturbed. However, while I do venture forth into difficult locations, I am also sensible about not taking risks.

Therefore I started extricating myself from that location. I wanted to have a look at a couple of other places where it is likely that other wildlife will be active. It was disappointing to see a large volume of rubbish in one part of the wood, had I not been carrying all the equipment I would have collected some of it but that will have to await another day. What lifted my spirits was seeing some real signs of spring Lesser Celandine and Hawks beard both in flower. I could see that there is the possibility for the next few months finding me very busy as new life springs forth.

The picture is of the cliffs known as the Crags it doesn't take a lot of imagination to realise how difficult the access was to my location today.

Returning to the meadow

A comment on my previous posting regarding the wild flower meadow, made me realise that I had not fully explained the way that managing the meadow benefits the wildlife that inhabits it. So I am grateful that this was pointed out to me. Sometimes it can be difficult to know if by assuming some knowledge or experience, I am going over the heads of people. Or worse still by over explaining I know I risk sounding condescending. Therefore I do welcome comments and questions, I may not know the answer mind you as I am only a simple mouse.

It is true that by cutting the vegetation off of a flower meadow will open up the area to some predators, especially airborne ones, but the overall effect is much more positive. In the winter a lot of the vegetation would die back anyway exposing the voles, frogs, mice etc to predators. However, by cutting now, the small creatures are able to relocate from breeding areas to what will become their winter quarters sooner. Over the many centuries of cutting meadows for hay, there has been an evolutionary behaviour shift that allows them to cope with this. Also by cutting down the vegetation, some will inevitably get left in the field, this becomes food for the insects and the insects become the food for the frogs and toads. Further, by cutting the meadow, more seed from the wildflowers drops to the soil. Some of these will be eaten by the mice, voles and shrews, some will be eaten by birds, some however will have the chance to spread to fresh ground via wind dispersal, or passing through the guts of birds, complete with their own manure package, or on the feet and paws of other larger animals.

The tricks of old agricultural practices often did have a beneficial effect upon the wildlife. That is one of the problems with modern chemical and industrial methods; they leave little or no room for the wildlife. Therefore to protect crops from insect damage, crops have to be sprayed, as the absence of wildlife means that there is nothing to stop the insects from eating its way through a crop. Sometimes we forget that while yields were lower in the days before chemicals, it was the wildlife that did most of the protecting of the crops. It was not perfect but it worked well for nearly two thousand years.

Incidentally, in recent years farm subsidy payments have been encouraging farmers to take better care of the wildlife by creating wildflower strips and beetle banks etc, and the farmers that have done this have needed to spray less frequently. Thus reducing their costs of production. There is obviously a lesson for us all to learn here.

The Image is of a Greenbottle Lucilia caesar