Big boost for otter studies at Carlton Marshes, June 2019
We’re very grateful to have been awarded a grant to pay for trail cameras and microscopes to help volunteers monitor otters at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Carlton Marshes and share findings with the community. The generous grant comes from Love the Broads, the visitor giving Scheme for the Broads National Park. 
Want to join in and help? Contact Suffolk Wildlife Trust at Carlton.
RSPB Minsmere 2019
hosted another series of early morning walks to look for signs of otters and to discover what’s been caught on the trail cameras.
Film-and-talk tour
Meg Amsden’s short film which premiered at the August 2018 Folk East festival, compiled from footage from lots of members of the Suffolk Otter Group, will be touring community groups in Suffolk in late 2019-2020.
Out in the day… but…
as you’d expect, most of the otter records sent in to the website are of daytime sightings. But our trail camera evidence is clear that at most sites the otters are much more active at night. Only Minsmere bucks this trend.
Urban otters?
From the Gipping in Ipswich, Andy C. wrote, “Watched 2 otters swimming/ feeding for 30 minutes in the river. Spotted single otter on same stretch of river 4 weeks ago and had been checking every night since then for more sightings. Very pleased to see a pair so close to town.”
Seen on the road
(June 2019)
Paul C wrote: “I was driving to work this morning, approximately 6.30 am and ahead in the road was what I thought was a cat. It was picking at a pheasant which had been run over. When I got closer I slowed down to a stop as it didn’t move. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a cat but an otter. I live in Cockfield and have never heard of otters in this area. It looked at me and then made its way quickly into the undergrowth on the roadside.”
Minsmere otters on TV!
10 days before Christmas 2017, ITV News contacted the RSPB to get a story about the revival of the otter population in Suffolk.
They interviewed Richard Woolnough – heroically risen from his sickbed and throwing off his ‘flu for the occasion. Richard’s been monitoring the otters on the reserve for several years by camera and spraint analysis. He found some lovely fresh spraint for them all to sniff; the journalist was clued up and interested and the film crew got some great footage of the sunset – even though no otters actually took the chance to shine in front of the cameras.
It was screened in January 2018.
Click here to see the crowd in Island Mere hide.
Is this their first swim?
A fisherman (and otter enthusiast) was lucky and skillful enough to catch this extraordinary film of an otter family on the Upper Waveney in November 2017.
Click here to see it
NEW!! Our (very basic) guide to the bones and other remains we find in spraints. See the Diet section of the Surveys page. (A more advanced version follows. So if you’re joining the ranks of the seriously obsessed – WATCH THIS SPACE).
Very useful discussion at SWT Lackford Lakes with Richard West of the River Lark Angling and Preservation Society. We heard more about the effects of signal crayfish, and how they’re removed; and about the improvements to habitats along the Lark. Good news.
Young people’s otter study morning went well at Minsmere. Footprints, spraint and film footage seen and documented. See Gallery page for pictures.
Study day reviewed progress on
(1) face recognition by biometrics, (2) recognition of individuals by footprints, (3) day-time/night-time activity patterns at Minsmere and elsewhere.
Training course with Essex river wardens. Ten volunteers came with Darren Tansley, Essex Wildlife Trust’s Water for Wildlife Officer, to find out about the ways we’re tackling otter studies in Suffolk. A great opportunity to share knowledge and realise how much we’ve learned. See Gallery page for pictures.
Utterly delightful article by Hans Kruuk about the possible early domestication of otters in South Sweden – evidence from cave art.
Find the article at www.otterspecialistgroup.org/Bulletin/Volume25/Kruuk_2008.html
Two Sunday morning drop-in sessions at Minsmere’s Discovery Centre went well.
More than fifty people came in over the two days and were able to watch recent videos of otters on the reserve, learn how to recognise otter spraint (by sight and smell), to see how we process it and to have a go at identifying what the Minsmere otters are eating.
See Gallery page for pictures.
Dead otter found at Clopton – Oct
See News page
Youth damage research equipment. See gallery for video evidence.
