Otter – Donich Website

Otter back again

donich_admin — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 13:13:42 +0000

Shortly after we moved in here we saw an otter on the webcam over the pond (it was actually around this time of year). We didn’t see him again over the next few months and then we had to give up on “Pond Cam” because the network wouldn’t support it and it kept crashing “Shed Cam”.

R recently upgraded our wireless network (he put an external access point on the front of the house and a new high-gain antenna on the camera) and we turned Pond Cam back on. Well worth it, as not only have we had some great shots of the heron – but also the otter was back last night. I suspect he has never been away and lives under the wooden bridge across the Donich. Click on the picture to see the video.

We’ll be keeping a close lookout over the next few weeks – it would be nice to see him out of the water.

I’m also going to put our battery powered trail cam right down at the back near the river and see if we can get any good shots of the deer. I know they come down there from the copious quantities of poo they leave.

Some more wildlife

donich_admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 18:50:45 +0000

Good wildlife week here. The day before yesterday we saw our first otter in Loch Goil. Unfortunately it was too fast to get a photo. We’ve also seen quite a few seals there – mostly over on the Carrick side. We also saw the first lizard I have seen in Scotland out on the path to Ardentinny.

Then tonight we were visited by a lovely red deer and her fawn. It had a really good investigate of the back garden for about ten minutes – including a go at getting in to the vegetable cage. R seemed to soften to them after seeing that – though he really hates them passing ticks to the cats (and him of course!).

Then I went down to gather more strawberries by the pond and a tiny frog the size of my thumb jumped out from behind a leaf. I still haven’t managed to get the iconic photo of one on a lily pad though!

On a slightly less pleasant note – Schrodi is currently very busy on the small rodent front. He brought us a dead pygmy shrew this morning, and then about half an hour later R noticed him sniffing in the corner over something alive. I never got a good look at what it was because I grabbed it and put it outside where it disappeared rapidly into the undergrowth. It was possibly a water rat because it was very large for a mouse – but whatever it was it had a savage bite – right through the end of my finger! Nature bites back….

Amazing Otter shots

donich_admin — Sat, 24 May 2014 16:13:20 +0000

I was just idling flicking through the ‘shedcam’ videos yesterday when I saw something really interesting. While we must quite literally have been sitting in the kitchen having our breakfast, a large otter suddenly shot across the camera’s field of vision and disappeared through the fence. I was super glad to see it again because it had not made an appearance on either camera since March and ‘pondcam’ is not great for night shots (there is too much life of the insect variety which generates a load of false positives).

A few mysteries however… What is it doing in the back garden? Why is it soaking wet when it is going to the river and not coming from it?

A thrilling sight though….

Otter in our pool!

marionmccune — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 22:25:32 +0000

Today we had another major thrill. Our second webcam (after the success of ‘shedcam’) is ‘pondcam’ and this is where anyone following the blog will have seen the video of our heron. But I was never expecting to see the pictures we got from it this morning. About 4am a long sinuous creature swam rapidly across the pool, glanced around and then ducked away under the water, clearly displaying its distinctive tail – an otter!
This has made our week because in our wildest dreams the best we were hoping to see on this camera were deer coming down to drink. Also I don’t think anyone knew for sure that there were otters in the Donich – so that is now confirmed (I have seen otters in the wild in Shetland, and this was definitely an otter and not a mink).

Our pool is about 8 meters across and more than a meter deep – so it is less than a loch but bigger than a garden pond and big enough for quite a number of creatures so it will be interesting to see what else turns up there as spring progresses. There is definitely no point in putting fish in it though – the old lady we bought the house from said that when she tried putting fish in they all disappeared – and now we know why.

At least with the current weather we don’t have to worry about it drying up….