The Holy Grail 2

The first Holy Grail Blip was on Xmas Eve last year when after two months of trying to see the family of otters on the River Kent in Kendal, we watched a family of 5 in the main lagoon of Leighton Moss 15 miles from Kendal. Since then, the Kendal otters have been seen by numerous colleagues and acquaintances, but in dozens of visits I have consistently failed to see one.

Today, during the lunch break I walked into town along the river side to pick up a couple of last minute Christmas presents. And just before the Riverside Cafe I spotted a movement in the water, then I saw an otter porpoise out and back in again. There followed 15 minutes of the best otter watching I have ever had, and I was joined by many other enthralled adults and children as this animal performed for the crowd. It was catching small fish then bringing them into the shallows to eat at the river's edge right below us. Porpoising, rolling in the water, lying on his back in midstream eating - the full gamut of otter activity, all in broad daylight, 50 metres from a busy road and overlooked by twenty or more excited people.

The world didn't end today after lunch, but if it had I would have died happy. The Kendal otter quest has lasted 14 months, and finally I have seen one, and seen one so well.

Isn't it so often the case, and maybe true of life in general, that when you go looking for something you never find it? But when you least expect something to happen, it does. But you must be prepared for the unexpected, and today I did have my camera with the telephoto on just in case. The light wasn't good, and most of the pictures were blurred, but I did get a few that were passable. But more than that, I was there and experienced it first hand.

Postscript. One of the people I spoke to on the river bank today was a woman who could remember the otter hunting pack in the 1960's at Dallam (where so many of my on the way to work blips are taken). As a girl she and her family would try and scare the otters out of the vicinity before the hunt started. It was hunting that made the otter so notoriously secretive and nocturnal. About twenty years ago, there was an otter expert employed to survey the Cumbria catchments for signs of otters. In two years he found plenty of signs of them, but he never saw a single one. That the otters in Kendal are now so visible in broad daylight is a joy for us all, the legacy of over 30 years of freedom from persecution. While at the same time the improving quality of our rivers in this period has allowed them to return to every catchment in the county.