Work this one out!

[camo]

Hi

I regularly check various places in Bedfordshire for Otters, fortunately due to the hard work and devotion of others Otters are doing much better in the county. Although I get fresh spraint at many sites footprints are more difficult to find. Partly because of contamination with dog prints and partly due to sites with hard ground. However todays trip was a corker.

About 10 days ago the river was high which lay down fine covering of silt at one particular bridge this created a massive tell tale patch.

The first picture shows an area of about 8 foot by 2 1/2foot. At point A their is a stone lump with fresh spraint. At point B their is a mound of mud scraped together by an Otter with a Spraint on top (this is quite common). to the right of A and B is a tangled mass of crossing tracks.



Picture 2 shows a closer view of the stone lump with Otter spraints.



Picture 3 point A shows the scrape, you should be able top make out claw sracpe marks with the outer ring showing the mound and the inner ring a fresh spraint. Point B shows a full Otter track.



Picture 4 shows two Otter tracks with the foreprint at point A and the hind print at point B. The foreprint clearly shows the effect of the Otters webbing leaving a soft edges between pad prints. The hind print has been made in soft silt so shows the foot sinking and leaving long claw marks.



Pisture 5 shows a 2 Rabbit foreprints at point A, these are very pointed and out of the picture this is backed up with droppings. Point B and C show Rat prints, C being the foreprints and B the hind prints. It is difficult to differentiate Rats with Water Vole and I generally note waht is around. There were odd Rat droppings close to scraped mound.



During the following hour I went on to find three other very good Otter tracks so just as Snow is a great indicator of what is about it is always worth checking a river a week after a flood.

Sorry for such a long post, but i hope you find some of the content interesting.

Roy

[ron1863]

Cheers for that Roy, I found it very interesting as we have Otters on our river but I have never seen them. I now know what to look for though, cheers, a very instructive thread.

[camo]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Cheers for that Roy, I found it very interesting as we have Otters on our river but I have never seen them. I now know what to look for though, cheers, a very instructive thread.

Thank you Ron

It took some working out but what I didn't say is that I went onto find some more sets of tracks which were very distinct footprints. However I thought there are only so many tracks members can take.

Roy

[ron1863]

Hopefully I can find some tracks as our river, which floods very frequently and is only about 5 miles long before it runs into another larger river. Will post a photograph if I spot anything.

Ron

[camo]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Hopefully I can find some tracks as our river, which floods very frequently and is only about 5 miles long before it runs into another larger river. Will post a photograph if I spot anything.

Ron

Hi Ron

I will look forward to your photos. I know this sounds funny but the best way of checking if a dropping is an Otter spraint is to smell it. I f it is Fox, Mink or Rat is will stink however if it is Otter it will have a sweet musk smell and once you have smelt it you will always remember the smell.

Roy

[ron1863]

Thanks for that Roy. There are definitely Otters on the river as my mate has seen on about a mile downstream from my house. Will have a sniff around

Ron

[camo]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Thanks for that Roy. There are definitely Otters on the river as my mate has seen on about a mile downstream from my house. Will have a sniff around

Ron

Don't forget to wash your hands

Roy

[vole-woman]

Very interesting pics!

Otter spraint smells a bit like cod liver oil, not unpleasant, and is often silvery with fish scales when you break it open.

[Badger Watching Man]

Blimey - if tracking is like reading a book, then you had the whole of War and Peace on your hands there! Excellent work in deciphering what was going on.

[camo]

Originally Posted by Badger Watching Man

Blimey - if tracking is like reading a book, then you had the whole of War and Peace on your hands there! Excellent work in deciphering what was going on.

It was a real treat.

Roy