Otter Encounter

Venus and Mercury are both visible in the morning sky - this picture was taken just after seven.  Venus is the bright star at centre, Mercury much smaller, down and to the left of Venus, just above the bank of cloud.  The white lights low down are small ships and coastal beacons, the green is the Red Rocks buoy.

With a fine morning forecast, and rain starting around lunchtime and predicted to become heavier as the afternoon progressed, we decided to take an early walk along the beaches to the east of Mingary Castle, a walk which takes us under the steep slopes of Ben Hiant.

The ground was thick with frost, the air temperature having hit freezing during the night and showing no intention of rising again until the sun was well above the horizon.  This view looks back from near the castle car park at Mingary to the summit of Beinn na Seilg (left) and Stacan Dubha.

Mingary Castle is at its best with the low sun shining straight into its face.  Beyond it can be seen the CalMac pier and, to the left, Callach Point on the Isle of Mull.

While we didn't set out on this walk to look for otters, with the sea calm and hardly a breath of wind, it was ideal conditions, and we've often seen them along this stretch of beach before.

But it wasn't until we had walked for over and hour, enjoyed the sun, and decided to turn back, that we saw an otter.  He was swimming about 50m off shore, diving regularly, and spending time on the surface after almost every dive eating whatever he had caught.

When we first saw him he was working his way westwards along the coast, the same direction as we were walking, so, to keep up with him, we had to hurry along the beach each time he dived, and freeze the moment he came to the surface.

We played this game of grandmother's footsteps for about a quarter of an hour, until he suddenly turned for the shore....

....climbed out onto a small headland, and found himself a nice warm spot in the sun where he proceeded to preen himself.

Getting closer to him for a good picture became impossible, as we were in full view of him and didn't dare move, but the moment he'd finished his grooming he disappeared behind the rock and returned to the sea, so we hurried along the beach.

We had given up any hope of seeing him again when, rounding a large boulder, we almost trod on him.  He had obviously gone back into the sea, swum a little further along the coast, and emerged again.  He hadn't seen us, but he was already on his way back into the water.

He slipped back into the sea, did a little more fishing and then, quite suddenly, disappeared.  We have no idea where he went, as the beach where we last saw him was long and exposed, so he must have swum quite a distance without surfacing.  Perhaps he finally saw us.