18.01.16
Sorry, but I’ve just got to brag about this one…
Steve and I had something to do in Dumfries last week and parked on the Whitesands in the middle of the town. We did what we had to do and decided on a walk along the West side of the Nith, down towards the Solway Firth, just as the sun (yes, sun) was starting to go down. After a mile or so the path veers away from the river and crosses a small, rather swampy tributary. We stood on the little bridge, looking at ripples in the water and wondering if there might be water voles around. Suddenly Steve hissed ‘otter’ and we took up stations on each side of the bridge to attempt another view. Neither of us could quite believe our eyes when the delightful little creature surfaced just under our noses, looking carefully at each of us head on, chattered a quick ‘hello’ from a pink but impressively well-fanged mouth and dived under. We followed its progress down the little burn and I even managed a distant and rather poor photo as it shimmied sinuously off towards an evening meal.
Quite beautiful.
