It's been a great month for otter sighting on Orkney. With otters seen at Brig O'Waithe, Harry Loch, from the Barnhouse hide and on Wednesday morning in Stennes Loch opposite the Stones of Stennes! I had been out to see if I could do the winter passerine survey, at our Brodgar nature reserve, but the weather conditions were not right. Fair to say I was feeling very disappointed, it' had been a very office based week, due to the weather, and I didn't know many wardens who thrive indoors! Imagine how pleased I was to see a family of four otters playing and fishing in the Loch. Seeing this group got me thinking about collective nouns, I looked up otter and the options were bevy, family, lodge, romp or raft if in water! I would have preferred a frolic of otters, as they certainly were this morning.
I did manage to take a shaky noisy video of the otters but I thought instead I'd share this gorgeous video taken earlier in the month by Alan Leitch. This group were seen during the Barnhouse hide event. You can see the mother and cub in the first half of the video, you even see the cub snuffling round as if it's hoping for milk. If you think they, particularly the mother, seem quite interested in something out of shot, that's because they are. They are waiting for the second cub which was happily chowing down on a fish. Enjoy :-)