Otters at Strumpshaw Fen.
Strumpshaw reserve visitors delight in otters show
By Stephen Pullinger Broads Correspondent
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
12:51 PM
It has traditionally been the preserve of bird-watchers gazing out over the waters of one of the Broads’ most pristine habitats.
But over the past four years visitor numbers at the RSPB’s Strumpshaw Fen reserve, near Norwich, have more than doubled as an exciting secret has gradually spread.
Regulars at the reserve now know that as well as being a site of national repute for spotting bitterns and other rare birds, including barn owls and marsh harriers, it is also an amazing place to encounter otters.
Reserve warden Tim Strudwick said: “After nearly becoming extinct nationally in the 1970s, otters started coming back to Strumpshaw in the late 1990s.
“However, until about three years ago they were rarely seen, very secretive and mostly active at night.
“But then suddenly a female otter began to be seen with her cub on a regular basis.
“Since then the whole population has learned to be more active during the daytime.
“They will swim past, look up and go on about their business completely unconcerned about people watching them close by.”
Mr Strudwick said otters were now being seen and photographed from the reserve’s hides on a daily basis.
He said: “This time last year seven were seen together; a female breeds here and visitors regularly see her at the moment with her cub. She had another cub which we found dead –we think of natural causes.”
Manifold signs of the otters include trampled paths down to the water and the occasional half-eaten pike left on a pathway.
“In the cold spell last December we would see them playing on the ice at the edge of the river,” he said.
It is thought the RSPB’s mid-Yare reserves, including Strumpshaw, are home to three territorial males and four or five breeding females, as well as a number of younger males.
Mr Strudwick described the return of the otter as “one of the greatest conservation success stories”.
He said the work of the former Otter Trust at Earsham, near Bungay, in breeding and releasing the mammals had played a part.
However, it was the improvement to water quality in rivers that had really driven the recovery.
“The River Yare was filthy in the 1970s but there has been a big improvement in the treatment of sewage,” he said.
“Agricultural pesticides getting into fish and poisoning otters was also an issue in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Otters disappeared completely in many parts of England but in Norfolk they just about managed to hang on.”
Mr Strudwick said the work they did in maintaining the ditches and waterways and ensuring a good fish population made Strumpshaw the perfect haven for otters.
And the improvement in water quality and general habitat was attracting an increasing variety of rare birds – ospreys were now frequent visitors and cranes were also seen on the reserve.
stephen.pullinger@archant.co.uk
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14 comments
"bookworm" is always writing negative comments about something, it does not surprise me that he is carping on about otters. No pun intended. The only mammal that kills for "fun" are Homo Sapiens (Human Beings)
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NorthStarRaven
Thursday, November 24, 2011
"bookworm" thrives on negativity. He is right when he says otters do sometimes just take a bite out of fish such as carp, however there is no scientific evidence to show they do it for fun. The only mammal that kills for fun is the Homo Sapien.
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NorthStarRaven
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Seems to me that otters may be getting the blame for the work of feral American mink which are relatively common and widespread these days and known to frenzy kill in closed ponds and take bites out of big fish. Since otters are a native species making a welcome comeback as part of a balanced healthy river ecology, I reckon it is up to those with "shooting fish in a barrel" ponds to net and fence them in the same way that hen keepers fence their flocks.
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Daisy Roots
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Bookworm, you really are a terribly shallow fellow aren't you? Attacking things for fun? Tut, tut, I fear you need to get your facts straight before posting on here
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Imatrollfolderol
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Bookworm-otters kill carp for fun.....fishermen catch carp for fun.Who's 'fun' is being destroyed here? One is nature the other is,well ......I just don't know.Idiot.
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wes1975
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
try telling the descendants of beatrix potter that its not good to anthropomorphise!!!
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bookworm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
you call this fun?
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bookworm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Bookworm;...it's not good to anthropomorphise .Do you post your stream of absurdist comments for fun ? Or because you have nothing better to do all day other than try to wind people up ?
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LARSON.E. WHIPSNADE
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
otters destroy carp for fun.they don't even eat them.they are like foxes. richard waugh---wise up.
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bookworm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
mr waugh---you do not understand wildlife. your remark is offensive.i bet you feed vermin like pidgeons..
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bookworm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I usually go there to see the swallowtails. Wonderful reserve. Guess I'll have to make the effort more often.
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Thoreauwasright
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I used to delight in seeing the Otters on the upper Bure, but they seem to have gone now, along with the fish, which were pretty sparse at the best of times anyway. Today the upper Bure is fairly dead in many areas apart from plenty of weed and the odd canoeist. It's such a shame this river has been so badly neglected, it would have been different had it been called the Wensum, wouldn't it ? Incidentally I don't blame the Otter for the lack of fish, I blame neglect and legal and illegal netting amongst other things.
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John L Norton
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
It was different when they were accusing Otters of destroying their Gull colony only a few years ago, how things change.
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chucky noris
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Otters kill carp in private fisheries for fun.Pity they cannot be culled.
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bookworm
Tuesday, November 22, 2011