Otter spread

[Keith Edmunds]

Like many creatures - they are lovely until you have something that they can harm. I used to like watching a heron lazily flap by until I started growing-on koi carp in farm ponds - then I thought differently. If only we could still manage them how we used to.

This image shows the late Charles Corner (neighbour and father of by best mate during my school days) with the Eastern Counties Otterhounds.........Bring back the hounds that's what I say

Watch Tarka the Otter - BFI Player

The classic family film, based on Henry Williamson’s beloved book, follows the titular animal’s wild adventures as narrated by Peter Ustinov.

player.bfi.org.uk

 

[nick.308]

Im sure I saw a dead otter on the local bypass (Keighley, west yorkshire) a few weeks ago. I was surprised as it was only about 1/2 mile out of town.
It makes me wonder if it may have been an otter that left loads of dead crayfish claws on the river banks during the summer when the river was very low?

 

[foxdropper]

I’ve a video of two in a town centre garden emptying a koi pond .Wernt so cute that night .Do like to watch then though .I’ve had quite a few encounters over the last few years ,best being two called at night whilst fox calling .They came to within 10 metres ,realised their folly and scrammed .That was lamping too .Havnt seen one on the thermal yet but it will happen .
The law relating to owning a dead one are strange or I’d have picked that one up at Keynsham to be stuffed .

 

[Sash]

It may be anecdotal, but I seem to recall that otters can now be found on every river system in the UK.

It's not anecdotal: the recovery of range since the lows of the 1960s has been remarkable.
I would be very surprised if many are actually released any more: they spread of their own accord!

 

[Hornet 6]

Never seen an otter, always turns out to be a giant mink

 

[Longstrider]

There are a few on the Great Ouse in my neck of the woods. I've seen them as far as a mile from the river having travelled up a tiny tributary brook/wet ditch across farmland.
Sitting out one night with the NV a small noise made me turn and look behind me .... Big dog otter sitting looking at me with little concern, from about 8 feet away. It was only when I breathed again that it slowly slipped back down into the ditch and disappeared.

 

[Deutsch - Drahthaar]

One killed last year near me on A1 motorway at Elkesley. Never seen one before that.

 

[steve sxs]

Im sure I saw a dead otter on the local bypass (Keighley, west yorkshire) a few weeks ago. I was surprised as it was only about 1/2 mile out of town.
It makes me wonder if it may have been an otter that left loads of dead crayfish claws on the river banks during the summer when the river was very low?

If the crayfish are red claws that's all good, I suspect they are as I can never remember any native ones in the river aire, we have (R wharfe ) both otter and red claws +mink +goosander +heron and very few Fish, (happy days)

 

[Siggy]

Found a dead one next to Cambridge airport last year and they are frequent but secretive visitors to the River Granta. I doubt there are many river catchments that don’t have otters now. It takes a healthy river to support an otter population so it’s a good sign, but a pain in the arse for fishery managers, as they will exploit well stocked ponds until they are at the same stocking level as the surrounding environment!

 

[Willie]

My fishing club in the Lake District have had to put electric fences round all their coarse lakes to stop predation and are now considering the same for their still water game fisheries. Lovely to see but they devastate fish stocks.

 

[Ratel]

They are everywhere now, on the Severn, Avon and all their tributaries. On the Welland and Glen and all the big drains in South Lincs. Plenty in Wales, also on the the Norfolk Broads. As Keith Edmunds said, bring back the hounds, as it would seem to me that there are more now than there were in the 50's when I used to follow the Buckinghamshire and the Courtney Tracey. There's some hope of that, so it's suffer in silence a la.Buzzard and Goshawk situation, to say nothing of .

 

[Robs]

Otters are unrelenting once a foodsource is found. If you have them on a fishery, without intervention they will strip a small water of eels, fish, frogs, moorhens and any nearby ground nesting birds. The only solution for a stillwater is well maintained fencing. I'll have otters every night around my place. Has been the case for over ten years. We never have successful hatches of moorhen or duck as the birds are taken off the nests. The reason for this is that despite much "book learning", trail cams etc don't lie. We've have different families visit on the same nights and bachelor groups after being pushed away by the female have stayed for over a year taking over the area.

Electric fences are excellent and I've watched otters sense but not approach them.

Many people believe they don't have otters. Tell tale signs such as dead fish with throats missing or slides in and out of water are all well and good, but once the local wildlife catches on the foxes and badgers will patrol the banks nightly looking for leftovers. In the morning, nothing to see. Fish damage here reduces in Feb / March as the otters will gorge on the gathering frogs and toads. Spawn on the banks is a give away at that time of year. Check any fish caught the claw and bite marks can be sutble and missed. The photo has a swipe mark where and otter has made a grab for the fish. Usually is looks like to capital AA overlapping on each flank near the pelvic fins.


I'm afraid the reality is to factor it into any business model which relies on fishing to generate income.

 

[User00053]

Plenty Durham and north York’s for a good while now, causing problems for some fisheries and been sighted in odd places, will and do take other species than fish.

 

[VSS]

I thought this thread was going to be about some kind of gourmet pate.

 

[AGR]

Otters are unrelenting once a foodsource is found. If you have them on a fishery, without intervention they will strip a small water of eels, fish, frogs, moorhens and any nearby ground nesting birds. The only solution for a stillwater is well maintained fencing. I'll have otters every night around my place. Has been the case for over ten years. We never have successful hatches of moorhen or duck as the birds are taken off the nests. The reason for this is that despite much "book learning", trail cams etc don't lie. We've have different families visit on the same nights and bachelor groups after being pushed away by the female have stayed for over a year taking over the area.

Electric fences are excellent and I've watched otters sense but not approach them.

Many people believe they don't have otters. Tell tale signs such as dead fish with throats missing or slides in and out of water are all well and good, but once the local wildlife catches on the foxes and badgers will patrol the banks nightly looking for leftovers. In the morning, nothing to see. Fish damage here reduces in Feb / March as the otters will gorge on the gathering frogs and toads. Spawn on the banks is a give away at that time of year. Check any fish caught the claw and bite marks can be sutble and missed. The photo has a swipe mark where and otter has made a grab for the fish. Usually is looks like to capital AA overlapping on each flank near the pelvic fins.
View attachment 237608

I'm afraid the reality is to factor it into any business model which relies on fishing to generate income.

That is a very comprehensive and accurate description. They cleared my friend's fishing lake of carp a couple of times before we fenced it, often only eating the rich parts like liver and as said, leaving the rest for rats and foxes. It's time to bring back the otter hounds!

 

[foxdropper]

The Bristol amalgamated water I used to fish near Lacock was a Mecca for big barbel ,upper doubles with me catching a 14.5 .Not any more .Found several carcasses on my last visit ,all with the back of the head gone nothing more .There was a rumour what was released was the European otter ,slightly bigger than our native species .
They are here to stay I guess .Artificial holts along the Avon covered in brushwood ,wooden boxes with tunnels to them .Keeper I know lost 300 odd ducks on a pond this year ,culprit bitch and her litter of two all on trail cam .
Only bonus I can see is that they target the small zebra mussels ,invasive which appeared on our local lake few years ago .They tend to favour a spot to open and eat them on the bank ,leaving behind the discarded shells .
They also target the large swan mussels .

 

[Fair Hill]

That is a very comprehensive and accurate description. They cleared my friend's fishing lake of carp a couple of times before we fenced it, often only eating the rich parts like liver and as said, leaving the rest for rats and foxes. It's time to bring back the otter hounds!

I know two old hardshaws that allow me to hunt and fish on their land here locally and decades ago they were well known for their generosity in supplying fresh salmon to neighbours. Neither ever used a rod or net but would walk the banks of the spate river after a flood and pick up the fresh salmon minus the head that the otter left.

 

[Warren79]

As was mentioned by someone in a previous topic, I think the 3 S's should apply.

 

[User00036]

More Otters than Moorhens & Coots on the Norfolk Broads. Had a 20 year old farm Goose dragged 700 yards to the side of a ditch, you could see the waterweed flattened in a circle where the cubs were. Goose lay on its back, looks like it had been professionally filleted, guts removed feathers still intact on wings. Cleared out my chickens too. A woman came home from shopping in Broadland, saw one come out of her cat flap, cat lay dead in the kitchen. When the Bittern goes, maybe they will start to take notice. In the meantime, an environmental disaster, as described to me by a member of Natural England.

 

[Fair Hill]

More Otters than Moorhens & Coots on the Norfolk Broads. Had a 20 year old farm Goose dragged 700 yards to the side of a ditch, you could see the waterweed flattened in a circle where the cubs were. Goose lay on its back, looks like it had been professionally filleted, guts removed feathers still intact on wings. Cleared out my chickens too. A woman came home from shopping in Broadland, saw one come out of her cat flap, cat lay dead in the kitchen. When the Bittern goes, maybe they will start to take notice. In the meantime, an environmental disaster, as described to me by a member of Natural England.

That would make a good letter to The Sun.