Utterly Otterly
Posted: Thursday, 14 August 2008 |
Well, i had almost forgotten to write something on here, almost, but not quite.
I am going diving later, woohoo yeah :o) However, i did get to dive with my strobe the other week and out of the 40 or so pictures i took a grand total of two looked ok. Some more practice needed i suspect. However, before i get onto the underwatery pictures, here are two which have a small story behind them. The first is the lifeboat whcih came to our aid three weeks before. The night was so still and perfect i just couldnt resist taking a picture. The second picture is the reason i was out and about so late.
Back when BSAC divers ruled the earth (sorry diver joke there), i did a degree where i studied otters for several months. I never ever saw a live one, lots of dead ones but no live ones. Ever since i have looked long and hard to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive Lutra lutra but with no sucess. Other people had told me of the otters which bimble along the quays in Lerwick, so as often as i could i would walk along late at night hoping to catch a furry head or tail or even a pawprint or poo. Nothing. Not a squeak. So on our last night i headed off for a long walk again, returning without seeing a sausage, let alone an otter. Sitting in the wheelhouse something catches my eye.....an otter pootling along the quay. I swear it was sniggering. I finally got my first look at this beautiful animal, short but sweet, it was a sighting none the less. Off to bed feeling very pleased with myself only to find that Hazel was rewarded with a full 5 minute show from one animal which chose to bounce (!) on our ropes holding us to the pier, then bite them.... Hazel grabbed the camera but knocked it onto a manual setting turning it on, hence the picture is more a dark splodge and a pair of eyes saying "who me?".
And finally, here are the pics i took with my strobe. Apparently they are not too good as it was too dark down there.
I am going diving later, woohoo yeah :o) However, i did get to dive with my strobe the other week and out of the 40 or so pictures i took a grand total of two looked ok. Some more practice needed i suspect. However, before i get onto the underwatery pictures, here are two which have a small story behind them. The first is the lifeboat whcih came to our aid three weeks before. The night was so still and perfect i just couldnt resist taking a picture. The second picture is the reason i was out and about so late.
Back when BSAC divers ruled the earth (sorry diver joke there), i did a degree where i studied otters for several months. I never ever saw a live one, lots of dead ones but no live ones. Ever since i have looked long and hard to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive Lutra lutra but with no sucess. Other people had told me of the otters which bimble along the quays in Lerwick, so as often as i could i would walk along late at night hoping to catch a furry head or tail or even a pawprint or poo. Nothing. Not a squeak. So on our last night i headed off for a long walk again, returning without seeing a sausage, let alone an otter. Sitting in the wheelhouse something catches my eye.....an otter pootling along the quay. I swear it was sniggering. I finally got my first look at this beautiful animal, short but sweet, it was a sighting none the less. Off to bed feeling very pleased with myself only to find that Hazel was rewarded with a full 5 minute show from one animal which chose to bounce (!) on our ropes holding us to the pier, then bite them.... Hazel grabbed the camera but knocked it onto a manual setting turning it on, hence the picture is more a dark splodge and a pair of eyes saying "who me?".
And finally, here are the pics i took with my strobe. Apparently they are not too good as it was too dark down there.
Comments
What's the diver joke DoD? There'll be a next time with the otters too.
Carol from IBHQ
Oh I don't know...that crab has a certain 'Wha' daur meddle wi' me' look about him/her...maybe simething to do with the urchin whose spines seem dangerously close to its behind!
Flying Cat from crabbit
You don't need to go to Lerook to see otters. a friend of ours claimed to see them fairly regularly at the back of the Holms in Stromness and we saw one ( OK once in 15 years) in the harbour to the north of the piers. The point as far as I can see is not where you are but how lucky you are. I have never in 19 years seen orca around Orkney and yet they seem quite common. Just be glad when you do see any of these wonderful creatures.
Hyper-Borean from The holt
So one night I am walking along a wharf in Ketchican. It is raining, not just rain, but coming from the sky in torrents. I have trouble seeing the fishing boats around me in the dark and rain. At the last moment I notice a mound of fur on the dock, the one I am about to step on. I figure it is a dog sleeping on the dock, but no, a pair of little black eyes look up into my flashlight. It is an otter curled up on the dock. It make a little bark and quick as a flash is over the side into the water. It turns out the was a whole family group living in the marina. We saw them from time to time swimming among the boats. They dined on the crabs and fish that swarmed below the fish cleaning station. Be patient and keep the camera handy.
Andrew Cooper from http://www.darkerview.com
Er, which blobs in #2 are the otter? NIce stobe pics, but where otters are concerned, you have tough competition from from another island.
Barney from Swithiod photo-critic
Barney, the slightly guilty looking otter red dots are the ones in the middle "box" created by our railings in the centre of the pic. The bright reflection in the same box is the flash reflecting off the lifering on the pier :o) Thanks for all the other comments chaps and chappesses and felines.
Deckhand from On the back of the Ola pier
i know where there are otters, i will e mail you! rerb
robin the engine room boy from STILL offshore
Always enjoy your blogs DH. Shetland is the place for cheeky and ever-present otters. In my favourite Lerwick otter story, as reported in the Shetland Times, one got into traffic near the Clickimin Centre. In an effort to subdue and remove it to a quieter spot, a chap threw his anorak over it, only for it to make a swift exit down one of the sleeves and make a bee-line for the loch.
Jeelie Piece from Abune the Hill
Just think of it, you don't see Orcas around Orkney, you saw an otter once ages ago (before your sight had the benefit of new glasses), and you still have to see Ian Paisley, not to mention Oswald Mosley. A deprived life indeed. Unlike fpu: I understand that only last week she saw Vanessa Redgrave, in a Trotskyite outfit (whatever that may be), adorned with a groatie buckie or two, perusing the offerings in the Red Cross windows in beautiful downtown Stromness.
mjc from IN, USA
Of course Shetland has had otters aplenty since time immemorial, so much so that they have entered the language. "Lat be for lat be. " As the otter said. Supposedly a man out hunting caught and thought he had killed an otter. He picked it up by the tail and slung it over his shoulder to carry home. The dratsie however was only stunned and when it came round it sank its teeth into the erstwhile hunter's rear end. Impasse, or something similar, as neither was prepared to let go. Whereupon the otter, which magically had the power of speech , made the offer of mutual release.
Hyper-Borean from The Otterbank
Shetland otters must be far cheekier than Aln otters!
Old git from Wishing we were back in Stromnness
My point,mjc, was rather more the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time. When orca were seen in Stromness harbour I was at work. From my lofty eyrie at work I have been blessed with sightings of;- harriers, peregrines, merlin and short eared owls not to mention sundry other birds of every description. I have also at various times on ferries and smaller craft seen sperm and minkie whales and a variety of delphinidae but not orca; c'est la vie!
Hyper-Borean from Orca(less)dia
When the orcas were playing in Stromness Harbour in 2005, I was sitting in my livingroom 10 yards away, completely oblivious, watching a wildlife programme on TV. . There's a lesson there for all of us.
Jeelie Piece from Always the wrong place
After coming to Orkney in May 2006 for 8 months, somehow I am still here. Running the MV Valkyrie in the summer and helping on the farm in winter is now my life. 
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