I frequently walk one of the beautiful beaches near Sumburgh Head RSPB Reserve before or after work. Most days, I see otter prints. Whilst I love seeing them, I am quite content just to know that they are around. A couple of days ago, I thought to take some photos on my phone of paw prints. Please excuse the quality - I am no photographer!
This is an otter...
This is a greyhound (Apollo)...
Of course with dog prints, size can be variable. I meet quite a few dog walkers on the beaches, their canine companions ranging in size from Chihuahua to Great Dane. When you get your eye in, you can notice the difference between otter and dog prints - the pattern, the shape of the pad, postion of the toes and so on. Some folk say look for otter's tail marks, but quite often there is no evidence of this.
There are sometimes other mammal prints on my local beaches. I quite often see cat prints, but this image shows a rabbit to the left.
I love looking for tracks and signs. Whilst it is great to encoutner all sorts of wildlife (some of which are more challenging to observe - whales, rare migrants, otters), I am very content to simply know that they exist. I've never seen a cat or rabbit on this particular beach (West Voe - just next to Sumburgh Airport) and had only seen otters three times here. Until early this morning...
Two tirricks (Arctic terns) had caught my attention - an adult and one of this years young. It must've been three weeks since I saw my last few terns and I was totally absorbed in the moment. Transfixed looking at the juvenile tern, I was captured by its beauty and in wonder of its immense journey ahead to southern oceans. It looked like it was suspended from invisible string as it was not moving an inch, having learned perfectly how to ride the wind. Suddenly, I was aware that Apollo had noticed something - an otter had cantered down from the dunes and slipped into the sea. I managed to spot it a few times through the breakers as it hunted in the shallows. Happy day.
Unfortuantely, I didn't have my phone/camera on, so no photo can be shared with you. Instead, here's one of my noble hound and otter prints from yesterday at the same spot.
There are any number of resources for learning about tracks and signs that you encounter. If you have any photos that you'd like to share, why not post them on to the community pages? If you aren't quite sure what they are, I bet there is someone who can help you. Or pop along to your local RSPB reserve and see if anyone can help you there - you never know what you may encounter.