Otter Madness!

With it being Mother’s Day tomorrow I thought I would blog about the only known mothers on the reserve at the moment, the otter family. It has been otter madness all morning with the radio buzzing with reports of sightings of the otters. Four were radioed through as spotted at Bittern Hide this morning and five minutes afterwards four were seen at Island Mere Hide. Since then there were eight further sightings of otter at Island Mere. With all of these sightings and with my recent fluke in spotting the firecrest, I felt sure that I would be lucky again and see some otters in my lunchtime walk. I wandered down to Bittern Hide in the rain and thought my luck was in when I heard someone squeal with excitement (as I would if I spotted them,) but it was just a water rail, which was also lovely to see. I then wandered down to Island Mere but was unsuccessful...this time!

I have been fortunate enough today to be shown some gorgeous photographs of the otter family taken yesterday morning by Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang and kindly shared with us. What a lovely mother she is with her three cubs and a very deserving one to be the subject of the Mother’s Day blog as otter mums raise their cubs without the help of the male.  The age of these cubs is unknown but for them to be seen out of the holt they must be at least ten weeks old.

In addition to otters there have been numerous exciting bird sightings around the reserve today, in fact so many that we have run out of room on the board in the Visitor Centre . Three kingfishers were spotted at Island Mere Hide along with six great crested grebes a bittern and a curlew. The rhododendron tunnel has had another good day with a nuthatch, a treecreeper and 20+ siskins spotted. The scrape has had sightings of 36 avocets, 20 black tailed godwits and four snipe. Even the Visitor Centre feeders have provided some excellent viewing with two reed bunting, a great spotted woodpecker, a bull finch and a marsh tit all pleased that the feeders are back up and refilled.

Reed bunting by Jon Evans

I would like to end this blog by wishing all mothers an otterly wonderful Mother’s Day. You never know you may even be treated to a visit to Minsmere to see our wonderful otter mum and cubs and lunch in the cafe!