March 2023

March can be a funny month for otter photography, as in theory the water should be at its coldest so the otters should be spending less time in it and be more visible on the shores.

Yet it also sees a period, known locally as "frogging fortnight", which is when the frogs and toads spawn, and the otters favour night-time hunting in freshwater pools instead of the tidal lochs. And depending on how slowly spring arrives and spreads across the island, this can last for several weeks.

So this month's image comes from a workshop when we were simply out looking for what was on offer around the island, hoping perhaps for a sighting of an early wheatear, but at high tide, we weren't expecting to see this otter... especially when it was fishing so close to where we chose to watch it from.

I first spotted the otter as it scampered along a roadside ditch, then crossed the road in front of my car, and dived into the waters of a loch. Almost instantly it appeared with a crab, and ate it on the shore below where I'd parked up. We found somewhere safer to park, and returned to the spot. 

For about an hour, we enjoyed ridiculously close views of this young otter as it caught crab after crab, eating them on the shore each time, and giving us all amazing views.

Not bad for a month that's usually seen to be difficult for seeing otters!