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Otters at Napton


Victor Vectis

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On 11/08/2018 at 18:00, Jim Riley said:

I've seen a few members of the mustelidae family, the big ones are easy, the little ones harder to identify. However a wildlife expert told me one is weasily distinguished t'other's totally different. 

Now where is my mink coat? 

A weasel is really small, a bit like a long bodied brown mouse, they hug the ground, ie scuttle. You have to have good eyesight to see them.

A stoat tends to jump around, that is when you are most likely to see them, they can mesmerise their prey by standing on hind legs, and they have a black tip to their tail, they may have white tummy and chest fur, and they are quite a bit bigger than weasels, unless they are juveniles, they are visible to people with normal to moderate vision..

Mink are introduced ie non native species,  and are the colour of mink coats [dark/black], bigger than a ferret, but not much. Vicious. 

Pine Marten look very like a ferret, they tend to have a dark fur with a light chest bib. They live in northern climes in the UK, in conifer forests, and a few established woodlands in E&W,  not often seen as they are very wary, and nocturnal.

Ferret have a very distinct smell.

Here endeth the lesson, sry.

Edited by LadyG
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10 minutes ago, LadyG said:

A stoat tends to jump around, that is when you are most likely to see them...

Driving home early hours down a country lane I had to stop to avoid running over a pair of stoats that appeared to be trying to tie each other in knots. I sat there in the car with the headlights shining on them and they continued to writhe around, completely ignoring me. After a couple of minutes they jumped up in unison and scampered over to the verge and disappeared into the undergrowth. It was a privilege to have seen that. 

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51 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Driving home early hours down a country lane I had to stop to avoid running over a pair of stoats that appeared to be trying to tie each other in knots. I sat there in the car with the headlights shining on them and they continued to writhe around, completely ignoring me. After a couple of minutes they jumped up in unison and scampered over to the verge and disappeared into the undergrowth. It was a privilege to have seen that. 

Chortle, chortle :P

If they're anything like dogs, they were probably doing a bit more than "scampering"

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4 hours ago, Mick in Bangkok said:

We were on a hire boat last September and my stepfather was sure he saw a black mink in the canal, are there many around in this location.

We were moored outside the Cape Of Good Hope a while ago and a mink ran the whole length of the wharf and right past us. Didn't know what it was until someone else told us.

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

We were moored outside the Cape Of Good Hope a while ago and a mink ran the whole length of the wharf and right past us. Didn't know what it was until someone else told us.

I saw one with a huge fish in his mouth running along the bank on the Coventry. I had hoped it was an otter but it was black and a bit too big for an otter.  

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When we used to moor at Hampton on Thames on Thorneycroft Island there was a Mink who used to overwinter in the front lockers under the cratch cover. He dis this for a couple of winters. Never did any damage apart from the smell. When I was in the gas locker painting it I popped up to grab the dustpan and brush which was on the deck in front of the cratch, but it was not the brush on the dustpan but the Mink

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2 hours ago, WotEver said:

I saw one with a huge fish in his mouth running along the bank on the Coventry. I had hoped it was an otter but it was black and a bit too big for an otter.  

Otters are deceptive, they are dusk coloured and nocturnal if they have any fear of man, which most do, but I would think most adult otters are far bigger than most adult mink [ average twenty four inches nose to tail] but of course if there could be exceptions, otters  are about five feet long nose to tail, both are aquatic of course, but to me  [no expert] the heads are very different, the mink being of the ferret type and the otter of the common seal  type, broader and flatter between the ears.. Otters have evolved for maximum camouflage similar to my my tabby cat, who is almost invisible at night, blending in to the shadows, mink of course probably originate  from mink farms, selectively bred for dark glossy coats for the fashion trade. So you may have seen an older Dog Mink escapee, but I think its more likely it was an otter, there could well be local variations in coat colour due to some local  genetic influence.Sounds as though I know what I am talking about, but I have no experience of inland otters.

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4 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Otters are deceptive, they are dusk coloured and nocturnal if they have any fear of man, which most do, but I would think most adult otters are far bigger than adult mink [ twenty four inches nose to tail] but of course if there could be exceptions, otters  are about five feet long nose to tail, both are aquatic of course, but to me  [no expert] the heads are very different, the mink being of the weasel type and the otter of the common seal  type. 

I couldn’t really see it that clearly, it was under the overhanging bank hopping over and under Elder roots. I only really got a glimpse. The fish in its mouth was bigger than anything I’ve seen a fisherman catch. 

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5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I couldn’t really see it that clearly, it was under the overhanging bank hopping over and under Elder roots. I only really got a glimpse. The fish in its mouth was bigger than anything I’ve seen a fisherman catch. 

Wot bigger than Antony's infamous Tope, lol.

Could be a pike, an otter would be the only carnivore to take on a pike, I think.

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3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I couldn’t really see it that clearly, it was under the overhanging bank hopping over and under Elder roots. I only really got a glimpse. The fish in its mouth was bigger than anything I’ve seen a fisherman catch. 

Recently spotted a load of fish scales and other bits next to BSPs boat they were from a bloody big fish as well, judging by the size of the scales.

Anyway popped in to say hello to her indoors and described what I saw and apparently she was woken up in the night by a lot of crashing and banging against the hull, which we decided must have been the otter or mink extracting said fish.

 

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mink and signal cray fish are one of if not the worst thing you could have in our canals crayfish erode the embankment away and like the mink kill for the sake of killing  ,the mink would not think twice of biting your finger right off ,as a friend of misters  knows full well to is cost so before you say oh thats cute ..think on 

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19 minutes ago, haza said:

mink and signal cray fish are one of if not the worst thing you could have in our canals crayfish erode the embankment away and like the mink kill for the sake of killing  ,the mink would not think twice of biting your finger right off ,as a friend of misters  knows full well to is cost so before you say oh thats cute ..think on 

These small animals are pure muscle and aggression, I once had to put a grey squirrel in a box to take it to a vet,  it was paralysed, but it was ferocious, lucky I had a stout pair of leather boots on, the teeth went right in through the leather.

I've got a trap for signal crayfish, but am not sure if I could BBQ them without freezing them first, then cutting through the spinal thread, it was bad enough with the last live lobster,  severing the neck is the only way of despatch, and that after a severe chilling in the freezer. Never again will I throw them in boiling water.................

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Now the good news!!!

 

You are not paying for the fence through your licence fees. It is funded by the angling association.

 

C&RT are not happy with the design of the gates and they will be modified. For now the sharp bits have been covered in foam rubber. 

 

Cheers Graham

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10 minutes ago, Graham and Jo said:

Now the good news!!!

 

You are not paying for the fence through your licence fees. It is funded by the angling association.

 

C&RT are not happy with the design of the gates and they will be modified. For now the sharp bits have been covered in foam rubber. 

 

Cheers Graham

Bloody anglers, I suspected as much. Fence the rest of the world out  so they can catch some poor fish, time and time again. Humans, typically male of the species, of course, determined they will keep their "own" fish for themselves. No wildlife will be allowed to share their bounty. Anyway, it  won't work, just a pity they have to despoil the countryside with their fencing. They probably pollute the waters with their baits, I don't know this I just suspect that is what they do, certainly they throw a lot of biological waste in the local artificial ponds round here.

 

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On ‎22‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 20:25, Jerra said:

You live to far away from the Scottish Border to understand!   With regard to how cuddly Otters are ask Terry Nutkin.  One of Gavin Maxwell's Otters took his finger end off and it was "tame".

Sorry can't let this one go!

Cue;  Inspector Clouseau Screams as he gets the top of his finger bitten off " You said your otter was tame"!

response: "oh aye sir he's a Tame Otter alright. He comes from the upper reaches....vicious bugger isn't he!"

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Yes , unfortunately when man interferes with a wild carnivore, bad things happen. That poor otter was killed by the roadman with a shovel because he, the otter, had no fear of man. Nutkin deserved what he got, the teeth are razor sharp, he should respect the animal, leave it alone.

Maxwell, the "naturalist" despoiled one of the islands by leaving all his shark killing and processing equipment to rust and rot. He was hunting basking sharks, a slow moving and slow growing species, who gently fish the waters of the oceans and large estuaries, they are filter feeders, plankton. Beautiful creatures, they roam the oceans of the world, and are somewhat mysterious in their habits.

Sadly persecuted by local fishermen on the Clyde in the 1980's, the fishermen cut off their fins and left them to die.

They are protected now.

https://hwdt.org/basking-shark/

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16 hours ago, Mick in Bangkok said:

We were on a hire boat last September and my stepfather was sure he saw a black mink in the canal, are there many around in this location.

There's a black Mink lives at our wharf......wins staring matches with humans, no problem...

 

 

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  • 2 years later...

Apparently they are going to fix the leak next to the Otter fence at Napton. Starting on the 11th October apparently. 

 

Despite previous assurances that the leak was no problem - suddenly it is. I blame Otters trying to get under the fence personally. 

 

The answer is piling I am told. In the meantime Dotterel will have to move down into the marina. 

 

Makes a change.

 

Cheers Graham

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17 minutes ago, Graham and Jo said:

Apparently they are going to fix the leak next to the Otter fence at Napton. Starting on the 11th October apparently. 

 

Despite previous assurances that the leak was no problem - suddenly it is. I blame Otters trying to get under the fence personally. 

 

The answer is piling I am told. In the meantime Dotterel will have to move down into the marina. 

 

Makes a change.

 

Cheers Graham

I am sure you will be ok, we are not that bad in the marina

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3 hours ago, Tonka said:

I am sure you will be ok, we are not that bad in the marina

Thank you. No one has ever been nice to me before!

 

I am wondering though if it is better to ride the Tsunami down into the reservoir when the piling goes wrong and then into the marina when the reservoir wall fails or be on the receiving end of the Tsunami by being in the marina first? 

 

Cheers Graham

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