... to enjoy our riverside retreat!
The River Colne flows for over 2km through the Woodland Trust's largest woodland creation site in England, Fordham Hall Estate in Essex. For a few years, foot prints and 'spraints' (droppings) of otters have been recorded along the river.
Improving habitats along the river corridor for otters, as well as other species, is an important part of the Trust's work at Fordham. In 2003 an artificial 'holt' was constructed by volunteers from the Colne Valley Project and within weeks otters were using it as a daytime retreat.
In February 2007, the Environment Agency re-profiled the bank along a 1km section of the river to improve the habitat along the river's edge.
In the same year, all the fish from a large garden pond near Fordham, adjacent to a small tributary of the Colne, were stolen and eaten by what Essex Wildlife Trust's riversearch officer believed was a female otter feeding her young.
Then, in May 2008, one of the Trust's lucky volunteers working at the nearby Hillhouse Wood, spotted two otters along a minor tributary of the river, which flows through the Trust's nearby Hillhouse Wood.
Geoff Sinclair, woodland officer for both woods says:
'This is exciting news because it was probably either a male or female mating or a mother and her older cub ...both good signs that otters are breeding within the area of our two sites.'
Minor tributaries are important for female otters and their young, as they need to keep out of male otters territory - they can be aggressive to young otters.
Geoff continues: 'Now we know the importance of these minor tributaries for otters, (something I'd not even fully appreciated before), the construction of artificial holts in a few other parts will be undertaken as a trial ...and who knows!'
