February 2023 Round Up
Spending plenty of time at the canal photographing Otters has also given me the opportunity to expand my portfolio of waterbirds
I had planned for February to be my month for expanding my Otter portfolio, and I am pleased to say that after a tip off (thanks Paul) about a very accommodating mother and kits, I really couldn’t have asked for more obliging subjects.
Luckily for me, the site is only about 30 minutes from home, so I was able to get there on multiple occasions in February, and rack up 28 hours on the bank watching a mum and her 2 kits. The site, is a stretch of canal that is a curious mix of busy public walkway on one side of the canal, and completely overgrown scrub bordered by a railway on the other (where there is no public access). This has had the effect of giving the Otters a real sense of security with a number of bolt holes and lay up points on the opposite bank, and a familiarity and lack of concern for passing people and bicycles on the public towpath. In the years I have watched Otters in the UK I have never known them to be this accustomed to people, to the point where they will swim within a few feet if you are quiet and still.
Of course, such performing wildlife does tend to attract scores of photographers, and I have to say I quickly stopped visiting at weekends, with often more than a dozen or so lenses pointing at the Otter whilst it hunted. I am afraid I did have to have a word with one or 2 photographers who turned up with with chairs, tripods, and a whole heap of other paraphernalia who insisted on chasing the Otter up and down the canal as it tried to hunt. A real lack of understanding of how to act around Wildlife :-(
Anyway, visiting mid week, and being prepared to stand around in the rain, does mean eventually you are rewarded with a little peace and quiet, and I was lucky enough on several occasions to be alone with the Otters despite this being just on the edge of a thriving town. The end result was something like 3600 images taken, and even after very judicious review and several hundred dropped for lack of clarity or bad composition I have ended up with a strong portfolio of Otter images. I am off to Mull in May, so a combination of these lowland shots and hopefully some Highland coastal Images will form the backbone of a 2024 Otter Calendar that I will be releasing at the end of this year. Here’s just a handful of the hundreds of keepers, so far (click on any of them to take a closer look):
Like last month, spending time waiting on the bank does also give you the opportunity to photograph some of the other wildlife that lives along the canal. During the month I have enjoyed watching Bullfinches, Long Tailed Tits, Ravens, Grey heron, Moorhens, Goosander, and Water Rail, all as side show to the “main event”.
The Water rail was suprisingly visible, something that is not common for this species.
In addition to the Otters I’ve also been putting some preparatory time looking for signs of the Foxes around the site where I usually photograph them. Whilst I haven’t seen any of them yet (and this is not uncommon as I often don’t see them here until April or May) I have seen plenty of sign including prey remains, scat and prints along the public footpath. I am also pleased to say at the same site I have seen the Peregrine Falcon hunting from the electricity pylons again, and for the first time saw and heard a Goshawk over the woodland. Its also worth noting that in this same location I had the surprise at seeing both Little Egret and Little Plover using the small ditch, both of which took off as soon as they saw me.
Given that there are Birds of Prey and Foxes present at this site you may ask how do I know what killed the Crow and Magpie remains I found. The simple answer if that feather distribution is very different in Fox and BOP (Birds of Prey) kills and also the method of removing feathers and choice of parts they eat first are different. Foxes tend to remove primary feathers by chewing through the quill close to the base using their carnassial teeth, and the softer downy feathers tend to be pulled out in clumps and stuck together with saliva and wiped away from the muzzle on the ground close to the kill. By comparison, BOP tend to pluck the downy feathers and leave them in a circular, or semi circular pattern around the body, and pluck the primary feathers by grasping with the beak leaving kinked, creased or flattened quills. They also can pluck by pulling on the vane leaving small holes in the pattern. There are other features that help define the culprit, but in this case (knowing the location), it was an easy conclusion as I have also seen the Fox hunt along this field edge on several occasions.
Clearly these Crow feathers have been chewed, suggesting that a mammal has been plucking the bird. The angle they are sheared at, the location, and presence of downy feathers pulled in clumps which were stuck together with saliva all strongly point to Red Fox.
At the same site I also had the pleasure of watching a roebuck and 3 does for about an hour. The wind was horrible and swirly on that particular afternoon so getting into a position where I could photograph them was not easy, but I did manage a few shots before the wind shifted and my scent gave me away.
A change in the wind direction and I was rumbled……this roebuck took off with his 3 does
With so many Otter images taken in February it’s difficult to pick my best “commercial” shot and overall “favourite” but I think this is likely to be the most commercial shot of the month for me.
…….and my favourite shot of the month is this one with the fish in it’s paws.
So, the Otter Portfolio is well and truly topped up, and as I wrote above will be further boosted (I hope) with some images of coastal Otters from Mull in May. The third and final part of the Otter Ecology series is all but written (parts 1 and 2 can be found here ) and as we are now into March I must move on to my next photographic subject which is Brown Hare. A little like the Otters, the Brown Hare population has suffered over the last century and its numbers are much depleted, however it is making a strong recovery in pockets across the country and I am lucky in that there are good numbers in both Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. March is a good month to photograph Hare as its close to the start of the breeding season and they have other things on their minds……also foliage is still relatively short meaning I should be able to get some decent portrait shots without long grasses playing havoc with my cameras auto focus. All we need now is some sunshine :-)
Until next month, keep clicking……….