October was a short month for me photography-wise! I spent the first two weeks of October, in India, without a camera – whilst it was a welcome break, I needed to get back to Edinburgh by mid-October! Yes, I wanted to get back to my camera but the main reason I needed to get back is that I had calculated that we may have our first otter cubs of the year, appearing on the Water of Leith between 16 – 31 October!
I photographed several otter mating sessions, way back in June 2023. If they were successful, I predicted that it would be around mid-August before new otter cubs were born. Sure enough, I managed to observe 2x otter mums collecting bedding materials of riverbank foliage, branches and leaves for their holts. This continued throughout September which confirmed that otter cubs had arrived.
Otter cubs normally stay within the natal holt for 8-10 weeks before making an appearance and attempting to swim for the first time – so my best estimate was that we may get a glimpse of the new cubs between the mid & end of October. So I was delighted to spot 2x wee otters cubs, out on the water, albeit briefly, last Monday morning (23 Oct) for the first time!
After the flooding at the end of last year we lost 3 otter cubs, so with the heavy rain we have been experiencing at the moment, I am feeling very nervous. The two otter mums have changed holts 2-3 times, in the last 7 days, due to high water levels, so I am hoping they are settled now. The next few weeks will be vital in terms of the cubs survival.
Photo 1 below is one of the mating shots from June, Photo 2 is one of the mums collecting bedding during September & Photo 3 is of the 2 brand new otters, holding on to mum, from last week! The rest of the photos are what I’ve seen over the last week or two of October!
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