Surprise, surprise

Friday 15 February 2013

So an afternoon off and with the sun out I decided to have another go at the Thetford Dipper. The journey to Thetford from Shouldham is only about twenty miles, but is a route used by every lorry in the world. It is, an absolutely frustrating drive, and as the miles slowly passed by, the sun was replaced by overcast skies.

Still it was an afternoon out and I hoped the Dipper was still there. On arrival I saw a handful of people running alongside the river Thet - strange to have so much excitement over the Dipper as after all it had been present for a good few months. I looked into the river and there swimming downstream was an Otter, with a Chicken in it's mouth !

 This was the first Otter I had seen outside Scotland, and in the last thirty years ! I was so excited I couldn't hold the camera still, that, combined with the speed at which it was moving meant views were restricted to a fast walking pace and rather than photograph it I was just enjoying watching it (  I fired a few hopeful shots though) . It was soon out of sight as the river snaked off by a large private house.

And it turned out I was stood next to Oliver Reville who had been watching it earlier. We had a further look and then returned to look for the Black-bellied Dipper, which was very confiding.

 So after a bit of time with this chap it was off to look for the Otter again. This Rat was trying to get in on the act and didn't really seem to know what it was doing, just swimming up and down, possibly avoiding something larger.

 We found the Otter back where Oli had been watching it previously, and there were two animals present. We watched them scent marking and playing, squeaking and rolling about in the water (in deep cover) and occasionally poking their heads out of cover.Oli got some superb video of them. Blooming brilliant.