Canal Capers

I can hardly contain my excitement! What should we see on a mizzly damp walk along the canal but two kingfishers hanging out with each other! I spent about five minutes trying to photograph the pair. Then to top that the passers by to whom we had pointed them out to suddenly shouted, “OTTER!”

Here are the kingfisher pics first. The female is on the left, as this one has what looks like orange lipstick on its lower beak. The male is on the right. At one point it looked like the female was nagging the male! Maybe it was demanding some fishing be done.

Here is a close up of the female.

And when the male flew down to a lower branch we thought perhaps it was going to catch a fish to deliver to her. He bobbed his head up and down as if looking for a catch.

But then they both flew off…in totally different directions. We headed along , hoping to catch sight of one of them again but then heard the shout , “OTTER!”

Oh my goodness, there it was, swimming swiftly along in the direction we were going. WE had to walk fast to keep up with it. It would dive under but you could follow it by the line of bubbles on the surface of the canal.

A pair of mallard ducks took to the air. I had heard that if there ducks clear off when an otter is about. Sure enough, as we followed the otter there was not a duck to be seen. Our otter got out of the water and went for a rub and a cavort behind a tree on the bank opposite us.

I wonder if it was scent marking?

It was amazing seeing it rolling on its back and showing its incredible paws and claws.

After a few minutes of rolling around it slipped down the bank and into the water. It swam along for about fifty metres then out it climbed again, but so quick and the light so poor that it was difficult to get a clear shot of it.

This time it was out only briefly, soon it was swimming westwards once more. We had to walk at a fair old pace to keep up with it and I needed to break into a run to get ahead of it.

We could have continued to follow it all the way along towards Bishopbriggs but called it a day as the already poor light was failing. On our return back to our car we were thrilled to see the kingfisher pair fly towards us then sweep upwards into a wood. Wow! What an afternoon’s walk that was!