Winter 2002 No. 15

Page 7

Did you see …

Charlie Hamilton James is a wildlife photographer who has travelled the world recording the wonders of nature. However to create his latest film ‘My Halcyon River’, shown recently on BBC1, he did not have to go much further than his own doorstep. He lives beside a weir on a tributary of the Avon near Bristol and decided to make his film when a family of otters set up residence in an old drainpipe not far from his home.

The result of many months of patient observation ‘Halycon River’ is a chronicle of river life over the seasons with some really remarkable footage of a young otter family being taught the art of survival in a watery environment by their mother.

Moorhens, mink and mayflies also make their appearance and the patient courtship ritual of a male kingfisher is followed by a dramatic sequence in which the female, finally convinced that her potential partner has the ‘right stuff’ is challenged and then attacked by another female. Their confrontation escalates into a fight in which both birds try to drown one another. Neither of them notices the mink lurking amongst the undergrowth. A sudden pounce and a snap of the mink’s powerful jaws leaves one kingfisher dead while the other flies away. But which one has survived? – you will have to find someone with a video of the programme to find out.

In an accompanying article (‘Tarka Goes to Town’ : BBC Wildlife Magazine Dec. 2002) Charlie Hamilton James tells us more about the otters he filmed: ‘the mother with her cubs worked a very strict routine on the river, travelling almost the entire length of it and back over a seven-day cycle. Indeed so routine was this system that for six months, Friday night was otter night outside my house, almost without fail.’

He also highlights the way that now otters are returning in increasing numbers they are adapting to a more urban environment. Glasgow, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport all support an otter population and ‘one otter has even turned an old Ford Cortina in a scrap yard on the edge of the Tyne into a breeding holt’.

However there is a downside to the gradual expansion of the otter population in a changing landscape. Over a hundred otters were killed on Britain’s roads last year and there are worrying signs of potential problems as the interests of otters and the owners of coarse fisheries and garden ponds, stocked with prize fish, increasingly come into conflict.

These are problems which we must address in the years to come if we are to ensure that the otter continues to thrive into the twenty first century.

Peter Irvine

I suppose you think that’s funny …

An otter walks into his local pub one day and sits down at the bar. The barman asks him what he would like to drink but the otter sits in silence for a long time before finally replying that he would like a glass of water. ‘Fine’, says the barman, ‘but why the big pause?’ ‘They help me to catch fish’ the otter replies …