More Otters

After my initial sighting of the otter family on the lower river Lune I was keen to return. I have made three visits since but sightings have only occurred once.This was on my second visit and I was fortunate to see the otters fishing and eventually returning to their bankside holt.The otters were in a different part of the river and were downstream in a long, deep and slow moving section of the Lune. The very nice Autumn weather continued and the colours on the trees made for some nice landscape shots.The otter family were busy catching fish,mostly eels and can be seen in the images below with what is I believe their favourite food.I followed the family back upstream to their holt and was treated to the sight of them coming out of the water.This gave me the opportunity to grab more images as they made their way home after a successful morning's fishing.Subsequent visits have drawn a blank but I am sure I will catch up with them again in the weeks to come. Meanwhile hope you enjoy my images of these lovely wild otters living happily on the River Lune.

Otterly Fabulous

I had recently discovered the location of a family of otters living on the lower reaches of the River Lune.On Sunday on a walk in the area I saw three otters on the river,one of them being within a few feet but I didn't have the camera gear with me.I was keen to return and on the Monday, Simon and I made the trip up the M6 to the location.At first we couldn't see any otters but very soon I spotted otters further up the river and they were heading our way.When eventually they came closer we couldn't believe our luck as there were four otters.They would be a family group of mother and three well grown cubs and they were returning to their holt following a morning's foray higher up the Lune.It was an exciting time as we were both kept very busy capturing the action. The otters came across the river close to where we were waiting and we made the most of this wonderful opportunity to grab lots of images. Eventually the family returned across the river and made for their bankside holt and we didn't see them again.It really had been a fabulous experience to be in the right place at the right time and witness at close quarters these special animals.Hope you enjoy the images shown below and you can be sure I will return soon for hopefully more close encounters with these fabulous otters. Thanks for looking in.

Repeat Performance

After Tuesday's successful visit to Leighton Moss I decided on another visit yesterday. The weather was still good and I was hoping for another sighting of the magnificent stag seen on Tuesday.I arrived around 2pm and spent the next four hours at the Griezdale hide.It was busy at times in the hide but fairly quiet on the water with only a few teal and gadwall showing well in the afternoon sunshine.From time to time we did have visits from a couple of marsh harriers still present on the reserve.By late afternoon most of the visitors had left and there were only four of us present when once again around 6pm the red deer stag put in an appearance.This time it came from the right hand reed beds and waded across in front of the hide. Three minutes later it had gone but in that short time kept me busy with the camera firing off a salvo of shots. Shown below some of my better efforts and a couple of the harrier and gadwall. Also a general view from the Griezdale hide.Hope you enjoy these further images from Leighton Moss and thanks for looking in.

The Golden Hour

I visited Leighton Moss again this week to hopefully see the red deer stags that had been roaring on previous visits but had remained hidden deep in the reed beds.It was to be an interesting session and began at Lillian's Hide. Here eight whooper swans had arrived.Whoopers are not often seen at Leighton and they were not welcomed by the resident mute swans which eventually saw them off. They provided nice photo opportunities and will be the subject of a future post.I spent the last three hours of the afternoon at the Griezdale Hide waiting for the red deer to show.It was a frustrating wait as stags could be heard roaring from the reed beds just in front of the hide.Eventually after a long wait a magnificent stag came out into the open and slowly crossed the open water to vanish into the reeds again.There was frantic clicking of shutters from the assembled photographers as the stag posed and roared for us in his all too brief three minutes on view.It had been a magic last hour with that lovely golden light and eventually the wonderful sight of a magnificent red deer stag.One of the memorable sights and sounds of Autumn and one I hope to witness again soon. Hope you enjoy the images below and thanks for looking in.