Saturday 23 November 2013

A Mischievous Otter

We walked along the beach below Ormsaigbeg this morning, with the tide falling and the sun coming in and out as the clouds drifted across it.

As we came opposite the perch that sits across the mouth of Kilchoan Bay we spotted an otter - bottom left in the picture - diving for a late breakfast.  Since he seemed to be coming closer we sat on a rock and waited to see what might happen.

He finally come out of the water on a seaweed-covered skerry a few metres offshore.  He'd brought a snack with him, which he sat and devoured, before setting off along the rock towards a small group of oystercatchers and curlews who were sitting in the sunshine minding their own business.

The otter had great fun with them, running at them and chasing them off the rock.

This is probably the same otter we saw off the Ferry Stores yesterday morning, and may be the same one that came up to the shop on Thursday morning and was seen running around the cars.

Most of the oystercatchers flew away, but one curlew stood his ground, so the otter gave up on the fun and set off back to his fishing grounds.

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