Saturday 24 December 2011: The Holy Grail

Let's face it, this isn't going to win the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. But who cares? The first mention of an otter here was on 2 October after a walk round Leighton Moss. But the quest for an otter blip really began with a passing conversation with a stranger in Kendal on 2 November. Since then, Willoughby and Brokenbanjo have blipped the Kendal River Kent otter. Meanwhile in this journal, the word otter has been mentioned 673% more than average in blipworld while I have consistently failed to see it.

Mid-morning today, Wifie and I met up with Simon, Jean and little Matthew for a walk around Leighton Moss. When we arrived in Lower Hide the family of otters was being watched by the people already there. Not one otter, or even three as shown here, but five in total. For the next half an hour or so they were constantly in view swimming back and forth about 100 metres in front of us, catching eels, porpoising and tumbling together in the water. There is one porpoising in this photo on Flickr. The best Christmas present I could have asked for.

Happy Christmas to everyone in Blipland.

• NIKON D90:
• f/5.6:
• 1/800":
• 300.0mm:
• ISO 500

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