The Goose Footed Hunter

When I worked down Herrington pit the only wildlife on its doorstep were rabbits, rats and pit yackers. The pit has long gone and in its place is a country park, a bit public for me but still it has its merits, its a nice open space and it attracts a bit of wildlife too.

Herrington Country Park

All to often in harsh weather, like what we are experiencing at the moment wildlife finds it really hard to make a living, this has always been the case but in our crowded little island it is all to often visible for all to see, rare birds turning up in unexpected places or wary species being observed in the open. In fact most species will loose their natural caution as the search for food consumes them.

Tiny Terrors no fox (or otter for that matter) would stand a chance with the terrible threesome - Cerberus

This morning, walking the country park with my dogs, there were two cases in point. About 10am with several people about with dogs all off leads enjoying the fresh fall of snow, right in the middle of the park adjacent the largest lake a fox appeared and casually strolled across the frozen lake. My leashed dogs went ballistic but he didn’t even bat an eyelid as he continued his hunt along the shore line for what ever scraps he could find, an unlucky duck perhaps that didn’t last the night.?

I remember thinking back to previous harsh winters (yes we have had them before) when lakes and ponds I frequented had remained frozen save a small area where every possible waterfowl was congregated. I remember a particular incidence when the longer the freeze went on the more the number of duck/bird carcases covered the frozen areas around the open water hole. These were feeding scavengers like crows and foxes, who I am sure were talking there fair share too. But I new what was catching the majority, the goose footed hunter? Could this be the same assassin but hang on this was in Herrington Country Park not the wilds of Northumberland.

I scanned the lake and there were several dead birds scattered across the frozen lake surface toward the southern shoreline, telltale pink splodges in the snow, tattered feathers and smudged foot prints, yeh they could be fox kills, they were certainly about, I'd just seen one trot nonchalantly by but there was something more familiar about the pattern of activity and more so the markings in the snow leading to and from the ‘killing grounds’.

The serpent wanders the frozen lake, the goose footed hunter?

In the shadow of 'Pencher' Hill (cos thats how you say it) you could be forgiven the impression that a large serpent had slide back and forth through the snow. I stared in almost disbelief, this was Herrington Country Park, no more than 500m from my home, could it be the goose footed hunter had finally arrived here where once coal was the master perhaps a new kid was now on the block?

I walked slowly around the shore to the inlets where there was still some open water, where if anywhere his presence could be smelt and confirmed. The short gap between the two lakes laid it all bare, there stretching back across the lake towards the island was the mark of the serpent, clearly visible, but this was no serpent this was the trail of an otter, the goose footed hunter!

He slid with ease like a toboggan over the ice, picking himself up to run a few more steps then slide again to conserve his precious energy or was he just having fun in the snow? I picked his trail up further where he’d used this deception to get close to the crowded ducks and geese making a quick rush and dive he would have surfaced amidst a throng of struggling feet and wings to snatch a wholesome meal, which he would haul out and eat at leisure drying his coat in the snow content, not even a hungry fox would trust his luck with the king of the stream the goose footed hunter, the otter was back.

Otter slides in the park and a clear tail print where it was rolling in the snow

So it was that I finally confirmed what I had suspected for several months, the presence of an otter on my doorstep. Of course he may have been visiting before, as the connecting stream stretches right down to the river Wear at Chester le Street where otter have been present for some time only the harsh weather and snow has betrayed his secret midnight visits. Whatever, I’m over the moon the otter has returned to my doorstep and now he knows where it is he will be back and so will I.

I wonder how long it has been since an otter has been this far up the Herrington burn? When I was at the pit way back in 86 (thats 1986, just as it was closing), a mate had said he had just seen a rat the size of a labrador dog in the burn, it was either that or an otter he exclaimed. He never lived it down, a tale on par with the Lampton Worm, but now I know he is here for sure, the goose footed hunter, the gypsy of the stream, the king of the river, the otter!

Tracks emmerging from the inlet

Close up of the goose footed hunter's spore