Thurso otters

[kas]

Anyone seen the Thurso River otters of late?
Caught a quick glipse of one at the river mouth on Sunday, my first time since February.

[wifie]

How fantastic. Have there always been otters in Thurso river - never heard it before?

[acameron]

Fishing on Saturday night at Thurso beach (just below the steps in the middle) and an otter came out of the surf almost 15 feet away from us, and was eating a wee fish. He finished the fish and jumped back into the surf and disappeared. The otter knew we were there because we had all of our headtorches trained on it, but it sat there for about 5 mins and finished his fish.
I think he was making a fool of us because we only caught the one fish and he decided to show us how to do it properly.

[Torvaig]

My dog and I watched an otter playing in the river a few weeks ago. This was in broad daylight. He eventually turned on his back and floated around as if he was watching us; a right little performer and a delight to see.

[Seabird]

Thurso otter almost met a nasty end this morning at 9am.
I was driving along side the River heading towards the river mouth when the Otter crossed the road a few yards in front of me.
Needless to say i hit the brakes pretty hard and stoped.
The otter continued across the road looked back at me and twitched it's nose with that whats the matter with you look.
The otter was dry so he must have been scavenging around by the few business premisses along that stretch of road.

A work friend told me she had seen the otter in the road dodging traffic by the toll.
Road sense it aint got but it's certainly got nerve to dodge cars in this part of the country.

Colin

[astroman]

How fantastic. Have there always been otters in Thurso river - never heard it before?

The first ones I spotted were a couple of years ago - http://www.caithness.org/fpb/februar...php?gallery=13.
As has been mentioned in this thread they didn't seem too bothered by people nearby watching what they're up to.
I've been lucky enough to see otters on the river a couple more times since - they're amazing creatures.

[Kenn]

I have known about otters on Thurso river for some years but have never managed to spot one of yet.
Are there any areas around the coast where they occur? Would be very interested to hear of any sittings there.

[Anne x]

The Otters are lovely on Thurso River watched them a lot in the past
fascinating creatures
the link given in above post from the org archives by Astroman is just like I experienced

[Buttercup]

Otters have been on the river for years have even watched young ones playing with their parents. In the summer at high tide you can see them regularly playing in the water in front of the legion houses and E & M Engineering. They're fascinating and you could watch them for hours, they've no fear of people (or don't object to people, I should say) and are even cheeky enough to put on a show at times.

[lesley_mac]

if u go up river to jocks hole u are more likely to come a cross a few otters playing together

[MISS K]

we are just back from taking my 2 dogs out for their last trip to the beach, when mr k who was walking in front with our toddler shouted at me to take a look, and a beautiful otter ran up along side us, totally not phased by the dogs, got to the end of the pier and jamp back into the water.....it was ace