16 Apr 2013

A Wonderful Afternoon at Killard Nature Reserve with an Otter

Hi
I went out to Killard Nature Reserve with the dog this afternoon and it was sunny but blowing a gale. There were a few Goldcrests in the gorse bushes along with a new Hooded Crows nest. Skylarks were singing and quite a few Swallows were on the top level. On the main beach 6 Ringed Plover and a few Redshank. At sea there was a lot of toeing and froing of Shags and Cormorants and a few Gannets.

A couple of days ago I bumped into birder Tim Murphy out at Killard Nature Reserve and he had asked me whether I had seen any otters recently. I told him that it had been probably a couple of years since I had seen one out there.

Well blow me I had nearly finished my walk when I saw quite far out what I thought might be a duck until it's long tail went up into the air. 
It then made its way to the shore quite quickly before getting out onto a rock. Then a wave came in right over it.
Otter being engulfed by wave

Whereupon it swam over to an adjacent rock got out and had a shake.


Then it had a good scratch.
Before rolling over and over in a cleft in the rocks.

Then after about 20 mins and with my memory card almost full it got back into the water and headed towards the lighthouse in the middle of the Strangford Narrows.













3 comments:

Andrew said...

What a wonderful experience. Super photos, Craig.

Vineeta Yashsavi said...

Lovely captures...

magnumlady said...

Fantastic photos. Lovely blog.