I’ve just come back from a week on Mull. For those who don’t know it is one of the best places in Britain for the Otter, the extraordinary secretive mustelid that is the top river predator in Northern Europe. Otters are members of the Lutrinae, a sub-family of the mustelids the same family as the weasels and stoats. They are a weasel that has adapted to living a semi-amphibious life and have long had a totemic quality, by virtue of their appealing appearance. Given that they are crepuscular in habit and rarely seen in the UK during daylight hours it is astonishing to be able to watch them as ‘easily’ as this in Scotland. I say ‘easily’ as the photo above required quite a few hours and a degree of shikari ( which should be interpreted as a hindi euphemism for skulking in the bushes in camouflage at ungodly hours). Not to mention a midge or three. Otters are notoriously shy and secretive and most non marine populations are strictly nocturnal, but Western Scotland is the place to get good daytime views. The one above is eating a flounder, using the powerful back teeth to consume the fish. Here is another shot – I’m grateful to a passing Devonian fisherman (whose name I’ve rudely forgotten) for identifying the fish.

I’ve read a few books on otters this last week, by the flickering light of a campfire while the stags roared around me, and the milky way twinkled like it was twinkling for me alone (apologies for the overwrought nature-writing but I got to sleep out in one of the most beautiful places on earth and am still drunk on it ;’drunk on truth and beauty’ and to watch otters). I’ll blog on otter texts at a later date but wanted to invoke a couple of literary ghosts who were both obsessed with otters, or as James Williams in his book The Otter would have it ‘besottered’. I refer of course to Gavin Maxwell and Henry Williamson, whose works Ring of Bright Water and Tarka the Otter, respectively are such sacred texts for anyone spellbound by the water weasel. They’ve got me too, and watching so elusive an animal is what I’d call a numinous experience.Of which more later.