Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

Otterly unexpected.

When I first moved here I asked the gamekeeper if he thought there were any otters in the burn. 'I don't know, I've never seen one,' was his reply. An answer which I viewed with slight suspicion.

Otters are very reclusive, but tend to leave quite a lot of evidence; mainly partially consumed corpses and poo (aka spraints) I stayed in a mill cottage in Brittany one time, which must have supported a healthy population, judging by the carnage spread all over the grass most days.

My kitchen window looks out onto what passes for my road, and the ancient stone bridge that crosses the burn, and I quite often see wildlife doing its thing as I contemplate the washing up. Tonight I saw a large black/brown thing lollop across the road on the other side of the bridge and vanish into the grass. Although its movement was very weasel like, it was way too big. I assumed, with great pleasure, that it was a fleeting glimpse of an otter and after mentally ticking it off the list, went back to the dishes.

Two minutes later, however, it reappeared, in hot pursuit of something small, fast and very squeaky. It chased it right up to my gate, before crashing off into the nettles. Re-emerging a moment later to chase its quarry back the way it came. It eventually overtook and despatched its victim, and vanished in the general direction of the burn. I was surprised by how swiftly the local bunnies returned, I could still hear the squeaks of dinner being despatched, while they hopped out, seemingly unconcerned, to continue their interrupted grazing.

The House Martins and various small brown things that have nested inconveniently close to the back door have now fledged, and various wobbly feathered things sporadically bounce off the windows. Yesterday I had to evict an hysterical small brown thing that had taken a wrong turn, and half an hour later, an adult House Martin flew a brief sortie round my sitting room, before, thankfully, it had enough common sense to retrace its path and return to the outdoors. I didn't relish the idea of trying to catch such an agile aerobat, chicks are relatively straightforward, they tend to forget what to do for long enough to make a careful grab, adults just shriek 'predator' at you and employ all their survival skills to get away. As a third feature to the days entertainment one of the newly fledged chicks flew into the house and promptly vanished, I checked all the windows (glass just doesn't feature in House Martin world) and eventually tracked it down, desperately battering at the front door.

Naturally, as soon as I carefully took hold if it, it began to shout the place down. I've always admired the careless aerobatics of swifts and martins, but living with them isn't quite so straightforward. Either way, they crap everywhere.

posted by Lampy @ 8/12/2012 01:09:00 pm