The magnificent 7

We have 7 very stressed ducks. On Sunday night we had another otter incident. At 4 am I was woken by the ducks and geese going absolute crazy. One duck (which was probably Betty) was quacking like mad. I threw some clothes on and took a torch down to the lower pond. The ducks and geese where out of the water and on the embankment and all looking in direction of the river below the pond. After some searching with the torch I found what was frightening them. A pair of otters slightly up stream on a bank in the river. They were devouring what was left of Betty, one of our dun-coloured ducks. There has been some debate locally about whether it was a otter or mink which has started to prey on our ducks. However, this was definitely a pair of otters. I think it was a mother and her young. They either aren’t frightened of human’s or were driven by their hunger because even with me illuminating them with a torch they cared on eating.

Our current theory is that the otters are coming up the outflow pipes and taking the ducks in the water and then leaving the way they came. This is very bitter sweet because it is amazing to have otters on our river, but not so great that they are devouring our ducks.

We left Betty’s carcass in the river on Monday and it was gone by this morning, so they have obviously been back for it.

Next job will be to make the pond as otter proof as possible. We plan to install grills over the outflow pipes, cut back all the vegetation on the river embankment and put in some low level electric fencing. I hope this works.