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Otters


mrsmelly

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Last night heard splashing about at side of my boat near to pontoon and wondered if something had fallen in tut watter. On investigation with torch through window two feet from me directly outside swimming next tut boat was an otter. Lived aboard over 30 years and seen them very occasionaly but never literaly next to mi boat, well happy.

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I've had a few is it / isn't it, sightings over the years having spotted something in the water but not been close enough to be sure. 

 

Earlier this year at Welford Junction I took the dogs out last thing and the head torch reflected on a pair of eyes in the water, definitely an otter this time and was lucky enough to watch it for a minute or so before it climbed out and disappeared into the bushes on the offside.  Magical :)

Edited by waterdog
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47 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Last night heard splashing about at side of my boat near to pontoon and wondered if something had fallen in tut watter. On investigation with torch through window two feet from me directly outside swimming next tut boat was an otter. Lived aboard over 30 years and seen them very occasionaly but never literaly next to mi boat, well happy.

Lucky you.

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How lovely. I saw one in Linslade once, I assume it had come from the nearby river to nab the huuge fish it had in its month while it was swimming around the canal.

I had heard a commotion among the nesting moorhens around my boat, and I stepped on to the bow to find the otter swimming up to a little bird feeding platform I had against my bow. Unfortunately he saw me when he got within about a foot of me so turned round and swam under the overhanging bushes in front of my bow where I could hear him crunching his way through his dinner. ?

 

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12 minutes ago, mark99 said:

There a lots of Mink in the rivers which can look like Otters.

 

The only Otter I saw in the UK was on the Stort.

With regard to separating mink from Otters try to get an idea of size.  

 

Otter - adults around a metre long and 10 or 12 Kg

 

Mink - adults around 45 cm and 1.5 - 2 Kg

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21 hours ago, BlueStringPudding said:

How lovely. I saw one in Linslade once, I assume it had come from the nearby river to nab the huuge fish it had in its month while it was swimming around the canal.

I had heard a commotion among the nesting moorhens around my boat, and I stepped on to the bow to find the otter swimming up to a little bird feeding platform I had against my bow. Unfortunately he saw me when he got within about a foot of me so turned round and swam under the overhanging bushes in front of my bow where I could hear him crunching his way through his dinner. ?

 

Was that the time I found the fish scales on the path by your boat or was that another time.

They were big scales

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18 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Was that the time I found the fish scales on the path by your boat or was that another time.

They were big scales

The fish scales on the path was at our current mooring. I never saw the fishmonger, but I heard the thrash and splash against my hull in the dark. Peered out the back where I heard the noise because I wanted to be sure the neighbour's cat had fallen in the water but couldn't see anything. Heard some more thrashing this time sounding like large shagging carp against the hull so presumed that's what it must have been.  Next morning we saw all those fish scales on the path. That was quite a big fishy that got chomped. 

 

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On 19/12/2019 at 08:13, mark99 said:

There a lots of Mink in the rivers which can look like Otters.

 

The only Otter I saw in the UK was on the Stort.

The mink doesnt look remotely like an otter, wrong colour, completely different shaped head and much smaller. The otter is unmistakeable this close up.

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16 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

The mink doesnt look remotely like an otter, wrong colour, completely different shaped head and much smaller. The otter is unmistakeable this close up.

Maybe but I've still never seen our local otter/mink in the flesh yet, seen the spraint, heard something very unfish like crashing against the hull and I've driven something big into the water on my way to work at 5:30am, problem with that is it's always been pitch dark.

Flaming thing is avoiding me :)

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On 20/12/2019 at 16:08, mrsmelly said:

The mink doesnt look remotely like an otter, wrong colour, completely different shaped head and much smaller. The otter is unmistakeable this close up.

But that only works if you surely know what one or the other looks like...

 

I’ll go for the 1 metre - it’s an otter, half that - it’s a mink. 

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