Awesome day photographing last week. I visited a new venue which I've not been to before. I travelled down to the location the night before and stayed over at a local hotel. Was up by 515 and spotted a pair of otters by 530. I spent much of the day following and photographing them.
I also experimented with a bit of HD video although had some difficulty with the focus. Have posted a selection ......

Otter cubs and mother fishing autumn 2011

I was fortunate enough to watch these 3 otters at close quarters .

You can just make out the mud/clay on the head of the female otter who was diving into the mud of the lake bed repeatedly fishing for eels.

Mud from the lake bottom stirred up by the mother otter.

On several occasions the female came onto the bank with a large eel and boisterous chase ensued .

This is a picture of the 2 cubs attached to different end of the eel chasing along the bank.

This week I spent two days in west wales filming photographing on a freshwater lake which I have been visiting from the past three years . The weather was cold and quite overcast. I was lucky enough to see otters most of which were some distance away. The photographs are of a young otter just separated from its mother. This otter was fishing underwater and taking its catch into the outflow culvert, where one of the photographs is taken . The only sign visible that it was fishing was the trail of bubbles and fish scattering on the water surface. It could be heard crunching up the fish under the Culver/Bridge. One of the photographs is taken just as it was just about to exit the culvert.

Nikon D3s 80-200mm

Otter looking out from top of holt

This photograph was taken on a Scottish island close to the coast.
I had travelled up by Plane and was due to fly home about 2-3 hours after this photo was taken. Last final walk around before hammering back to the airport.
I had spotted a tuft of brown fur blowing in the wind where you can see the opening of the holt.
The weather was truly terrible with wind, sleet and rain. I had to wait about 30-40 mins for this otter to wake up and look out in my direction. Freezing hands and rain on the camera....

Female otter and cub

Female Otter and cub fishing in kelp.
I had spotted this female otter and cub about 40 minutes before this series of images was taken. The 2 otters were on the beach beneath the coast when I spotted them, some distance off. Although the cub is reasonably well grown it was constantly "peeping" , a high pitched call. I followed the pair down the coast, keeping below the horizon and out of sight. Fortunately the wind was favourable and I managed to wait in a secluded position in front of the position where they were likely to exit the sea.
About 5 minutes after these pictures were taken I was soaked by a heavy rain shower which drenched the camera.