Thursday 30 April 2015

A close encounter

Photographing, or at least, had been photographing a mother and her two cubs until they returned to their holt. Whilst waiting to reappear this dog turned up on the scene. A brief sniff at the holt entrance  was met with an abrupt send off by mother.
He continued on, following the shore some 40 yards to in front of where I was hiding amongst the cover of some boulders. Without knowing I was there, he landed right infront of me on the shore, took a few steps up the beach where he sprainted then continued along his circuit of his range, seemingly unaware I was ever there. It was typical of such a close encounter, when your out of site and scent, when their eyes feel like they are right on you but yet they don't actually see you. He ended up too close to focus with my 500mm. I just sat tight and stayed silent.




Tuesday 7 April 2015


Catching up on recent otter encounters, a sequence from recent trip where we spent a couple of hours with this family. Although it was a howling gale, up to force nine at times, these two cubs, guided by their mother, carried on with their day none the less. It was a strange day to be out with otters with the battering wind and yet it was a beautiful blue sky day.

Much of the time we were with them the mother was away foraging but before she had left the cubs on the shore, we had taken our time to move into a good position before they returned to shore. We were in this particular encounter for an hour, the two cubs, playing, grooming and of course sleeping, unaware of us hiding in the shadows of the bank.  


With an onshore wind and early morning sunrise from over your shoulder, the light was beautiful on the cubs, almost at times too golden on their drying gingery brown fur. This time of morning and wind direction is perfect not only as the low angle shines wonderfully on them but also offers a great deal of cover in the shadows of the bank, making it even less likely for an otter to see you.