Cap'n Fishy
Well-known member
I had a go a couple of weeks ago to get photos of the young otter that has taken up residence on Dunsapie Loch, which is up Arthur's Seat - smack-bang in the middle of Edinburgh. There was no sign of it that day. I had another go today. Bingo! It was on the loch when I arrived, and was still on the loch when I left, 2 hours later.
I had heard it was not shy. That is an understatement. I think if I had had some fish in my pocket, I might have managed to get it to take one out my hand. At one point, I couldn't get focus on it, and I realised the distance limiter on my lens was switched on - means it won't try to hunt for focus closer than 3 metres. At this point, the otter was nearly under my feet - about 6 feet away from me!
It seems to be a young female, as it is quite small. She is quite the show-woman... bank lined with folk holding phone-cams up, and she was swimming back and forth, for them, over and over. I think her staple diet is sticklebacks. There are pike and perch in the loch, but my pal (who has been photographing her for weeks now) has shots of her with what is clearly sticklebacks. What I was seeing today was her dive, come up, mouth wide open, chew, chew, chew... dive... surface, chew, chew, chew... dive... surface, chew, chew, chew... over and over. So, in a lot of my photos, she has her jaws wide agape, making it look like she is angry, when all that she is doing is chewing a stickleback. 'A face like an otter chewing a stickleback': new alternative to the old adage, 'face like a bulldog chewing a wasp'!
They can't be particularly palatable! She has been filmed making off with a mallard in her mouth, but I think it is the need to keep hunting for a prolonged period when she is resorting to sticklebacks that is affording everyone such a great chance to see her and photograph her.
My 2 hours of shooting resulted in me bringing home 900 frames (plus a couple of video clips), so I have a bit of sorting and processing to do!
I did an initial sort through for potential keepers and narrowed it to 200. More work to do! I have only processed one shot so far - one that caught my eye when I was going through them...
You know you got close to your subject when the eye is in focus and the tips of the whiskers on both sides are out of focus!
I will put some more shots up when I get the 200 whittled down and processed.
Col
I had heard it was not shy. That is an understatement. I think if I had had some fish in my pocket, I might have managed to get it to take one out my hand. At one point, I couldn't get focus on it, and I realised the distance limiter on my lens was switched on - means it won't try to hunt for focus closer than 3 metres. At this point, the otter was nearly under my feet - about 6 feet away from me!
It seems to be a young female, as it is quite small. She is quite the show-woman... bank lined with folk holding phone-cams up, and she was swimming back and forth, for them, over and over. I think her staple diet is sticklebacks. There are pike and perch in the loch, but my pal (who has been photographing her for weeks now) has shots of her with what is clearly sticklebacks. What I was seeing today was her dive, come up, mouth wide open, chew, chew, chew... dive... surface, chew, chew, chew... dive... surface, chew, chew, chew... over and over. So, in a lot of my photos, she has her jaws wide agape, making it look like she is angry, when all that she is doing is chewing a stickleback. 'A face like an otter chewing a stickleback': new alternative to the old adage, 'face like a bulldog chewing a wasp'!

My 2 hours of shooting resulted in me bringing home 900 frames (plus a couple of video clips), so I have a bit of sorting and processing to do!
I did an initial sort through for potential keepers and narrowed it to 200. More work to do! I have only processed one shot so far - one that caught my eye when I was going through them...

You know you got close to your subject when the eye is in focus and the tips of the whiskers on both sides are out of focus!
I will put some more shots up when I get the 200 whittled down and processed.
Col