Will snow reveal all?

Snow had been forecast last night. The Met Office suggested there may have been unto 5 - 6 inches. This is quite a good opportunity of otter tracking. The snow makes the invisible nightly sojourn of the otter visible it briefly lifts the vail so that you can see exactly where the otters go and may even suggest what they have been up to, where they rest when the enter and leave the water and so on. You can also track them over much larger distances than usual, so the prospect of a good covering of snow is especially exciting.

However last night the temperature lifted and the snow feel like a watery slush which only just managed to settle into a slippery sludge. Come the morning it was already beginning to melt so I set out early to see if I could find any signs of activity. The snow had not lasted the night, there was nearly any visible although in some places the slush was still just solid enough to linger. The northern part of the range was almost entirely devoid of snow and there were few if any signs of otter activity. There was no spraint visible at any of the sites where activity over the past month or so had been so plentiful. Meanwhile a few miles down stream near to where i'd taken casts of paw prints the snow was more persistent and I could see fox prints in abundance. There further down the river I travelled however the less snow I found. I could see little if any otter activity here either.

On my return journey back to the car however I once again got some fantastic views of the Barn Owl quartering the meadow on the right bank of the river. But this time it seemed to disappear from view only to reappear from a completely different direction. Could the owl really cover so much ground in such a short space of time. Then whilst watching the owl in the middle distance as it floated silently just about the ground I glimpses a second owl on the left side of the river. It quickly dropped into the reeds for a few seconds before lifting off and sweeping languidly over the river to join its mate in the meadows on the right bank. I must assume therefore that this is a breeding pair having paired up early in preparation for the breeding season that is only just around the corner.

Otter tracks along the public
foot path.

Having tried to photograph the owls and realising the light levels where simply too low for me to capture any images without a tripod, I reluctantly left them to their business and carried on along the river. Again there were no signs of otter activity until I rounded a bend and noticed some very distinctive looking prints that were clearing following the footpath along the side of the river. You can only exploit the uncloaking effect of fresh snow if you are the first person to pass by and if you manage to keep the dog behind you otherwise as if just mere chalk dust those tell tail marks can all-to-easily be obliterated.

Here were very clear signs that an otter had passed this way heading north. It seems to have emerged from the undergrowth on the right hand side of the path. Travelled along the path for around 100m then dived back in the undergrowth the the right once more.

The interesting thing here is that this path divided the main river (to the left) from a small gully (on the right) however all along this section special measures have been put in place to 'improve' the river bank. Consequently access to the river on the left had been blocked by means of the nylon mesh fence, basically to keep human and dog traffic away from the river bank. One wonders if this isn't also impeding access for the otters too. That said the otter tracks don't seem to indicate that the otter tried to get to the river so it may not be the hinderance that I suspect it could possibly be.

A nice clear track with a 2 pence piece in the middle to
give some idea of scale.

Here you can see a number of tracks as the otter walks along
the track. They are surprisingly clear and I was fortunate to
have arrived on the scene before the ice melted.

The gap in the fence and the undergrowth beyond. This
is the point where the otter seems to have emerged
out onto the footpath