Lengthening days and disrupted cameras

At last there is a perceptible lengthening in daylight hours as we move slowly towards spring. The sun began to rise this morning at around 6:30am and dusk didn't arrive until 5:30pm. For months the day seems to begin reluctantly, the sun rising ever so slowly as if waking from a heavy night out on the other side of the world. Then quite suddenly, it seems to rise and set more quickly as if in a hurry for urgent spring to arrive.

Yesterday I set out along the southern part of the valley where there seems to be much more otter activity. I've moved one of my cameras to see if I can capture some footage of the otter leaving the river by the sluice gate where I'd seen spraint very close to the public footpath.

There were a number of new spraints visible but unfortunately none near the camera so I didn't disturb it and moved on down the river. Just a little further on a spotted the iridescent back of a kingfisher skimming low just above the water as it followed every twist and turn of the river course.

Later in the day I returned to the river to walk the dog. This time as I rounded the corner on my approach to the sluice gate I noticed workmen busily installed a barrier just at the point where I'd installed the camera. I was sure they must have seen the camera but rather than draw attention to it I passed on by and resolved to return later to check that it hadn't been disturbed. It feels terribly clandestine putting up the cameras and trying to keep there location secret but this is essential to ensure that they are not stolen or interfered with.

I returned later in the day when there are fewer people about to check out whether the camera was ok or not. Of course the first thing i noticed was fresh otter spraint exactly in the location that confirmed that the otter had passed in front of the camera. The camera however wasn't in place and was lying, faced own in the mud- typical. I don't think the workmen had deliberately disturbed it, they had simply knocked it off the tree where I'd mounted it. Anyway it has become detached so I had to unhook it - which is a bit of a job - and decided to take it back home to make sure it was functioning properly. I resolved to try to return before dusk to reinstate it as soon as I could since the otter had passed through recently there was a chance it might come this way again so I had to move quickly to get it up and running again.

I've noticed this pattern in otter activity, sometimes you seem to get bursts of activity over several days where they appear to have a routine, exploring a small area and visiting the same sites over and over again. Then nothing. All activity seems to stop for days, even weeks, the animal just disappears. Maybe it just passes through stopping just briefly to spraint in slightly different locations or moves off to hunt in more fruitful locations.