Tail slide

Many moons past Robert had a staring contest with a sleek little creature, flat faced, whiskered and beady eyed. Definitely not a stoat, weasel or the like. Suddenly I knew I was looking at an otter pup. With a bit of poking and looking over a few weeks I discovered a holt in ancient cress beds. 

The stream contains trout, two small ponds contain larger trout. The route from the holt may occasionally be confirmed by the existence of these slides, where the otter has bellied down the slope and rounded out at the bottom as it slides into the water, the tail leaves a distinctive thumb width mark. There are two here but Mme Flossie decided she would follow the scent and dragged herself up the slope via the slide. 

I took images of catkins, trees, all sorts but this excites me beyond reason. The animals are safe, surviving well and hopefully will produce young. The memory of that pup and the lack of fear on it's face will stay with me.