Food for thought...

Conditions over the past five days have been less than conducive for the early starts that will be necessary to photograph the otters on the Dorset Stour. This is probably more down to me being less than willing to drag myself out of the house before dawn than the weather itself, but today I feel I made some progress in my search.

But once again my movements are arrested by the presence of a Grey Heron feeding on rocks that straddle the river, and once again this magnificent bird performs for the camera. I get several good images of both stalking and flight shots, but choose this particular image for the blog

Having spent more than an hour patiently waiting to get what I want from a photographic point of view, the heron helpfully flies off, and I move on to a recommended location by (yet) another local.

Again, no otters, but for the first time I see evidence that they are, indeed, in the area, by way of a fish skull stripped bare and left on the river bank. I'm no angler, but to me it looks like a pike, purely because of the rows of backwards facing teeth. If it is, then it's clear that otters are quite formidable predators.


300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR Nikkor with TC-14EII converter. 1/1600 second at f/6.3.  - 1 stop EV compensation. ISO 500. Monopod.


© 2012