Otters?

Now this will really test your eyesight, even in large view!

As I approached the bay this morning, shafts of sunlight were starting to appear towards the south of Arran. I stopped and framed the Point between a couple of gorse bushes for a possible blip. The camera was just back in its pouch when I spotted what I thought at first were a few sea birds about thirty metres from the waters edge. As I looked closer I could see three heads and a few other shapes that definitely weren't birds. As I watched they swam off quite smartly on the surface before two of them dived out of sight. Could they be Otters frolicking in the gentle surf? As I was about a hundred metres away I couldn't be certain, but having seen them in the bay before I reckoned they probably were.

As these thoughts were going through my mind I got the camera back out and zoomed in to try and capture the single head that remained on the surface. Got this one shot before it disappeared. I then ran quickly down to the waters edge in the hope they would resurface. I waited patiently taking a number of blips of the shafts of sunlight (much better than this one!) but unfortunately they never reappeared.

On reviewing the shots, the head of one of them could be seen (the tiny wee black dot in the middle of the picture!). When the image was magnified the head and part of the back could be made out. There was also the grainy image of a further head and body shape in front of it. All the evidence pointed to them being Otters.

In previous years we have seen Otters in the bay, usually late on in a summer evening when nobody was about. The best sighting was about five years ago when we stood on Dippen Bridge in the late evening and watched an Otter in the river beneath us. A truly magical moment.