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Description
The text below is taken from a blog post that Lisa Morgan, Head of Islands and Marine at the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, wrote regarding the sighting. At the time Lisa was the Warden on Ramsey Island.
"With a stiff NW wind blowing against the flooding tide in Ramsey sound this afternoon, there was a mass of white water crashing through the Bitches and Whelps reef. This is one of the most notorious tide races in the UK. The deep waters of Ramsey Sound rising up to the rock reef that breaks the surface. This creates an unusual ‘white-water’ rapid, much loved by kayakers today, but the sight of numerous shipwrecks from years gone by. However, despite this maelstrom of turbulence, an Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra) was successfully fishing in the current, completely un-phased by the power of the water and the large gulls circling overhead.
We receive occasional reports of Otters in the waters around Ramsey from local boatman, but this is the first sighting from the island and in broad daylight. It created quite a stir among storm-bound island staff and volunteers! I climbed the rock called ‘The Axe’ and watched the Otter make many dives over a period of around ten minutes before it finally surfaced with a large, orange fish. It then torpedoed through the fast flowing water that runs behind the harbor wall, and on emerging on the other side, proceeded to come ashore on the boulder beach under the Ramsey farmhouse and disappear into a cave with the fish still in its mouth.
For the last two years we have been finding Otter spraints on the island's footpaths, beaches and on the harbour steps. An initial analysis of spraints from 2010 by Swansea University found that Otters using Ramsey had been eating a mixed diet including marine fish, fresh water fish and non - fish prey. The interesting thing is that birds were found to be the most frequent prey item! In fact the gull and wader families made up over half of the material eaten!"
Description of photo: 1)Eurasian otter in Ramsey Sound, surfacing with a large orange fish. Photo taken by Lisa Morgan, from ‘The Axe’.
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