Friday 22 April 2011

Crab catcher- Greenback









As with the sequence bellow, I crawled on my belly along the shore to get myself into a good position where most importantly the Otter would not be disturbed by realising my presence. Getting into such close proximity is not always possible when photographing Otters and it should never be attempted unless you are confident the animal will not be aware of you. If you think there is a risk of disturbing an Otter by trying to aproch it, there probably is, be fare and put them first and not your pottential images!
After this large Greenback was consumed and foraging had once again commenced, I waited untill he was far enough off shore before retreating to carry on my circuit of the site. Over an hour later on my return he was still catching crabs in the same area.
Interestingly the second cub and mother were no where to be seen. This is not unusual though as at this age cubs, especially males can spend quite some time foraging by them selves. I hope that next time I visit the site I find them all together again...

Crab catcher- Velvet






A magical encounter with this cub (about eight to nine months old) yesterday evening. Throughout the hour and a half of the encounter several crabs were caught, both velvets and greenbacks. The tide was well out and I stayed well back till I had an opertunity to stalk into a good photographic position whilst making sure I remained unseen, in my Stealth Gear of course!

Monday 18 April 2011

Shetlands coastal 'Kelp jungle'




Spent quite some time following two cubs foraging through the kelp bed jungles, these are some of the biggest tides of the year. Although an ebbing or flowing tides are usually when Otters are most active, tides these extreme can make life slightly harder for foraging Otters that tend to prefer foraging at the bottoms or around the outsides of submerged Kelp beds. The collapsed Kelp makes life that little bit harder.