Otterly Amazing!
One Monday in August we were astonished to see an otter on our garden wall. The weather was very poor and my husband Phill thought he had seen something that he couldn’t identify, flash by in the rain. For the next ten minutes we tried to guess what it was: dog, fox, rat, Muntjac deer? He rejected all of these.
Later that afternoon Phill rushed into the room. “It’s on the wall” he whispered. I moved to the French doors and there it was, peering in. It was clearly an otter! The size of a large cat, greyish brown in colour with a broad tail and prominent whiskers.
As we watched, it ran along the wall and jumped nimbly down into the garden. We were taking photos through the glass as it rushed towards the pond, still in driving rain. It plunged straight into the water and after a few seconds it surfaced clutching something in its front paws. From a distance we could see it looked like a large frog. The otter then lounged on the grass looking relaxed as it munched away on the unfortunate amphibian. It then plunged again repeating the process, by which time we became a bit concerned for our frog population. When it plunged in a third time, Phill put on his rain jacket and moved quietly towards the pond. Out it came again, covered in pond weed and this time without a ‘trophy’. It caught sight of Phill and loped slowly off into the hedge and away.
We were thrilled and privileged to see this wild animal at close quarters in Kibworth, so far from the sea and not exactly close to a river. I had never seen one other than in zoos previously. Will it return? Watch this space!
Carol Townend
