Otter having a Ball

[Billhook]

I dangled a tennis ball from a bit of string down by the lake. Set up a Bushnell trail camera and hoped for a result..........

 

 

 

 

 

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These were all on Good Friday.

[muttley9050]

Nice one.

[Mick Dempsey]

Brilliant, well done.

I saw my first osprey the other day hunting at a lake nearby. Magic

[Pinkfoot]

Fantastic mate , well done .

[swinny]

Great footage

[pycoed]

Tremendous footage that!

[Billhook]

Brilliant, well done.

I saw my first osprey the other day hunting at a lake nearby. Magic

 

 

 

I bulldozed the lake in 1999 and to me the arrival of the Otters is the perfect result. They are relatively rare around here and these ones have ventured up the chalk stream from the river to make a holt somewhere amongst the Ash tree roots which cover the tall banks on at least a mile of stream.

They raised two pups last year and two this year.

It is the ultimate sign that all is well with the chalk stream and farmland.

 

We built a log cabin using the full scribe method in 2001 and used Poplar from a large plantation my father had planted in 1960.

He always promised me that it would be worth a fortune at the Millenium for Bryant and May.

 

The year 2000 comes along and most have packed up smoking and those that still do use butane lighters. So a lot of Poplar looking for a home.

 

A chance remark from someone who lived in Oregon sparked the idea. He told me poplar was used there a lot and that there was a Church built of it over a hundred years old.

 

Went on a full scribe course with Dan Franklin of Woodenways in Devon. He came up and we assembled a team and did the scribing in 10 days. About forty large logs were used.

 

I have quite a lot of videos and stills of the project but they will have to be converted to digital, but I will do it if anyone is interested.

 

 

But earlier on Mick, when I was hammering away at the cabin, a huge bird came circling round and landed in the ash tree on the island.

Yes the first sighting of an Osprey is very exciting.

 

I called my dear old father, now well into his eighties, to bring down a video which he did but the battery was flat.

I told him to watch the bird while I went home for my video.

 

Came back and he said it had just flown round the corner out of sight.

I waited for half an hour then I told father that I must go back to work but clicked out my battery and was just handing it to father (same model camera)

 

You can guess what happened next, the Osprey flew round the corner and landed on a huge Brown Trout, lifted it with one leg an the scales glistened in the sun.

It was an Attenborough shot but I had nothing to take it with!

 

I stayed down at the cabin and did get some shots of it catching smaller Silver Rudd, and it still visits every year. An avian Little Chef!

 

I also have some shots of it being mobbed by a pair of Buzzards.

When it became fed up with their attention it rolled onto its back and showed them its talons!

 

I am really chuffed about the Otters and will try and rig up some more games, perhaps a small kiddies slide would work?

[Billhook]

I have finally worked out how to link the clips into one video to make it more watchable and put a few more new ones on the end.

In the latest ones on April 12th the Otter is really going for it and actually catches the ball and hugs it!

 

I have now fixed an old child's garden slide across the concrete overflow from the lake to the stream. The tennis ball is in reach half way down and I again await developments!

 

They have been around now for over two years and I have still not seen them yet only on camera. They seem to be completely silent.

 

 

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[Stihllymok]

Awesome!

 

we've just spotted our first otter in the brook behind us, been told they were there but never seen them.

like you say they silent Ive waited many a time with my camera to no avail.

 

well done!