Paxton's most popular mammal, and one that every visitor wants to see, is the otter. Poor water quality in the Ouse Valley meant that the species was locally extinct for 30 years, but in 2002 and 2003 occasional sightings suggested that it might be making a return. To encourage them, volunteers built an artificial holt (an otter home) on the east bank of Heronry North, viewable from Kingfisher Hide. Sadly, this was burned down in 2007, but was rebuilt in time for the 2008 breeding season.

Sightings have increased, with increasing evidence for several animals being present, and in February 2007 breeding was confirmed with the welcome record of a female and two small cubs.

An otter’s tale
Jono Leadley reports on his first sighting of otters in England, which confirmed breeding at Paxton Pits in February 2007.

“A colleague at the Wildlife Trust, Iain Webb, had the good fortune to see an otter fishing in Heronry North lake at Paxton Pits at lunchtime on Wednesday 7th February. Saturday morning dawned overcast and pouring with rain, so I thought I could kill a few wet hours huddled in Kingfisher Hide, on the off chance that the otter may put in an appearance. Although I thought this very unlikely, it was better than trudging around Grafham Water in the rain; at least I might see a smew!

“I arrived in Kingfisher Hide in good spirits, despite the rain, as I had seen four smew including two fine drakes on Heronry South. There were plenty of ducks on Heronry North and I set my scope up just in case I found anything interesting. I scanned the lake wondering where exactly Iain had seen the otter a few days previously. After a few minutes the mixed flock of ducks in the middle of the lake suddenly flushed, leaving a couple of bemused looking mute swans. My pulse quickened as Iain had said that when his otter appeared, all the ducks flew off. I saw a dark shape move and then disappear with a small splash - was this an otter?

“For a moment I thought maybe I had seen a diving cormorant, but no, there it was: an otter, swimming on the surface and munching fish. I enjoyed fantastic views of only the second otter I have ever seen. The animal was quite big, but perhaps without the broad head of the large male I had seen on Ardnamurchan in Scotland a few years ago. After diving repeatedly, and catching many small fish, she caught a larger one, which she carried across the surface in her mouth to the bank on the eastern side of the lake. As she approached the bank, she dived under water, surfaced close to the bank and scampered into the bushes. Another birder had joined me midway through this encounter and he was equally exhilarated.

“We decided that as she had caught such a large fish, it was unlikely we would see her again and the other birder left the hide. To my amazement, a few minutes later she was back out in the middle of the lake fishing again. After several minutes, she caught another large fish which she dragged rapidly over to the same spot on the bank. This time she went about ten feet up the bank until she was lost to view among the bushes. I got the impression she could be feeding young, as this seemed a lot of effort to go to for herself. A phone call to a couple of friends confirmed this to be a likely scenario.

Watch Jono's short video (2.8 Mb)

“Nothing further happened for a while, until about midday. I was scanning the spot where I had last seen her when I saw a movement in the dead typha emerging from the edge of the lake. Sure enough, there was the otter, mooching about among the vegetation. But, to my delight, another otter appeared on the bank behind! There were two! The other otter, which appeared to be a large cub, emerged from the water and joined its mother feeding on the large fish on the bank. For the next ten minutes there was lots of activity and I began to be a bit confused about how many otters I was looking at.

“Unfortunately, a tree obscured a lot of the action for a while and due to all the rolling around going on, I could not be sure if there was more than one cub. After a while, I became sure there were two cubs, as at one point the mother and a cub were wrestling together while a second cub was in the water. A couple joined me in the hide and were soon enjoying their first otter sighting; not bad for their first visit to Paxton Pits!

“The action continued for the next twenty minutes or so, before the mother led its young along the shore towards the hide, with two cubs in tow, thus confirming the otter count. They disappeared behind the peninsula where the artificial holt is. After ten minutes, the female swam out of the bay and started fishing again. She was on view off and on until about 12.40 when she swam back into the bay and out of sight. I waited another half an hour and then left, somewhat elated! These were my first English otters and all the more fantastic for being within a few miles of my home.