Oxfordshire otter revealed

As you can tell from the photo above, I saw an otter! A bona fide river-dwelling local otter.  I keep replaying the morning in my mind, in an attempt to glean as many useful learning points as possible to try to maximise the chance that I will see it again.

This was at a location where I had found not only otter spraint but fresh spraint and I had come to know that stretch of the river very well.

I almost did not take the camera that morning, a scenario at which I now shudder.  I had decided to go to collect the trail cameras that I had left out and as a result of so many fruitless trips and feeling without hope for this trip, I had decided to leave the camera behind.  It was only standing on the front door mat fully dressed in waterproofs and wellington boots that I changed my mind and rather than de-robe to walk on the carpet I persuaded Sam come downstairs to pass me the camera. Then there was the debate about which lens to take: my 100-400mm mark II was very new to me and I had a reluctance to exposing such a thing of beauty to the misty drizzle that was the weather that day (before anyone brings me up on this, yes, it is weather-sealed) .  The snap decision however was the correct one and mark II lens on mark III (5D) camera were passed to me.

The moment I first saw the otter I was creeping along the river bank; the tactic I have adopted is to walk a metre or so back from the water's edge in an attempt to be less conspicuous than if I were looming over the side- luckily the otter was in my line of sight, not hidden by the bank.  I well-knew that when near an otter you are only meant to move when they are underwater and thus unable to see you drawing attention to yourself, advice I completely disobeyed in my eagerness to get into position (one of lying flat at the water's edge).  The otter did not see this ineptitude and came swimming towards me nonetheless.

With the lockdown I have turned my attention to photographing hares as some live in a field an easy walk from our house. Unhelpfully, these hares like to sit in the middle of the field leaving me with no way of subtley approaching them. I never thought I would relegate my much-loved hares to being second choice of photographic subject but I'm afraid that is now the case. I really, really love otters.