The Sweet Smell Of Success

The day of our Exeter Otter Survey finally arrived after being postponed all winter!

We were given the last two weeks of February to conduct our survey, after the previous sets of dates in November then December were cancelled due to heavy rain and very high water levels.

We visited the site back in January (see here) but high water levels after the snow-melt proved a limiting factor and we found nothing.

We set out with the sun shining, and our noses ready for the sweet smell of ottery-success!!

Our section covers the Alphinbrook from the edge of Alphington up to the Twisted Oak pub at Ide. The small section of brook on the edge of the industrial estate was decided to be unsuitable, and viewing was difficult, so we gave it a miss and drove straight to Balls Farm Road to begin.

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The point at which the brook flows under Alphington Road was our first port of call - here there had been spraints found in the original 1999 survey, and a local land-owner had suggested there had actually been sightings off otters here. We searched hard, eventually finding a place where we could get up into the bridge and look down at either side of the brook...





...and that was where we spotted our first spraints. There were two fresh spraints and up to four old dry ones and stains on this one bit of concrete alone.

We could also see spraints on the far side of the brook, so climbed over and slid down the other bank to see. On the way down, I noticed a spraint in the dirt - 3 meters from the water's edge!
The fish bones were clearly visible in this one, and I got my first sweet whiff of the day!

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Down at the brook's edge were yet more spraints - 3 lots of fresh, and 5 old ones. This was obviously a favourite place to mark.

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We were also pleased to see something we had only ever heard about - anal jelly! This is the substance that holds the spraints together when they are fresh, but is often secreted separately in place of the spraint. It was a milky yellow colour and very sticky, a lot like slime really! But a nice find.

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When climbing back up the bank, we noticed several other spraints even higher than the first - almost a trail of them away from the water. Some were complete spraints, others just flakes with fish bones. This seemed like unusual behaviour to be sprainting like this, bu then noticed a small side stream not far away and wondered if the otters were crossing into it from here. Nevertheless, we were pleased with our findings so soon in the survey - we still had a long stretch to walk, and couldn't dally much longer.

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A large portion of the river bank proved very difficult to access, so often long stretches had to be missed out until we could find a way down. A little further along we found another dropping. It didn't look like otter spraint, but certainly smelled like it. This one was very runny, with white patches in - this is possibly the anal jelly still present, suggesting it was a fairly recent spraint.

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We also came across some scuffle marks in the sand, including some footprints which I am fairly confident were otter.

The photo of the print didn't come out all that well, but you can make out the basic spread pattern of the 5 toes and the fairly large pad.

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We continued our walk along, splitting up into pairs and taking half of the remaining section each. The northern bank of the brook wasn't easily accessible as much of it abutted the backs of houses and gardens. We could easily scan with binoculars to the opposite bank from where we stood, so did not worry too much about this.

Another possible set of prints was found, but the remaining stretch wasn't as suitable as the beginning, so within no time we had fast-forwarded to the Twisted Oak at Ide for a refreshing drink and a packet of crisps, adorned with various colours of mud on our wellies and legs.

We walked back along the lane, paying a quick visit to our plethora of spraints at the beginning by the bridge. We were pleased to have some positive results to bring to the meeting next Sunday, now all that's left is to mark up the findings onto a map for submitting. Its great to finally find some decent spraints - the more you see the easier it is to find them when you know where to look!

The site by the bridge is obviously a hub of activity, and also a great vantage point for a spot of night-time otter-watching for one day in the future....