Ring of Bright Water
While I have otters in close proximately to my house, they are very much nocturnal, and I have never seen them.
A few years ago, I decide to take myself across to the west coast in search of otters. I went there on three occasions; a couple were successful but the weather on the last trip was wet and cold, and the otters decided not to show.
On my first trip I rented a cottage in the glen nearby and stayed for a few days.
My guide was Philip Price who I found very helpful and a pleasure to work with. We spent most of our time at a long sea loch which had great vantage points for spotting the others.
As always it was an early start, and we met up in the local village before heading down to the sea loch.
Philip knew the place well and we were rewarded by quickly coming across otters on the waters edge.
Photographing otters is all about patience, quiet and keeping low.
Otters are either continuously feeding in the shallows or sleeping on a rock or bed of seaweed. They are so well camouflaged in this environment and staying low stops them from seeing you but also helps you to see them against the horizon.
We came across a dog otter working his way along the water’s edge diving amongst the rocks to find fish or crabs.
They need to feed constantly as they have no insulating fat to keep them warm in the icy water.
One trick is to find a large rock protruding out of the water and waiting for an otter to catch something large. Small food they will eat on the run but larger stuff needs to be eaten out of the water so they will head for a rock, climb on and eat the meal.
I soon got the hang of this, and the day was very productive with several sightings.
On one occasion I spotted an otter heading over from the opposite side of the loch so I lay down on my belly and crawled towards the edge of the water. The otter stayed well to the front of me and disappeared into a cove. I crept on my belly towards the cover helped by a large rock screening me from the otter. As I got nearer to the rock the otter suddenly appeared in the water heading straight for me just meters away. I’m not sure who got the biggest fright but before it dived into the water and disappeared I managed to get some images. For a few seconds we stared at each other trying not to move.
It was getting late and I had got the images I wanted, I was cold, wet and stiff from lying in the seaweed. The light was fading so we packed up and I headed back to the cottage for something to eat, to look at the days images and for a sleep before it all begins again in the morning.
