River Tracking day out

[bikething]

and now for some piccies

Moving up river...

...looking for otter sign

found something!

What we're looking for - in this case a small mound of leaves scraped up by an otter as a platform...

a close up of the <ahem> interesting bit.. Apparently the smell is an experience in itself Unfortunately (or maybe not) I have no sense of smell

Also next to this marker point was another type of otter sign - Anal jelly

Further up river we found another well used marker post

Again, a close up of the interesting bit

We also had a look for tracks on land - Here's AndyRAF and Angie looking at a possible fox track in amongst the numerous pheasant tracks in the area

All in all a great day out in the woods - can't wait for the next one!

p.s. we also found these : (scalycaps?)

 

[Rhoda]

You beat me to it! My pics are the same except minus my backside and with the addition of yours Thanks to everyone who came along, it was so good to meet you all and I had a great time. It was so interesting to find spraint with fish eggs in it, something I have never seen before in all my years of tracking otter!

 

[ANDYRAF]

Haaahaa! fish eggs, I wonder why they were not digested, interesting?

Andy

 

[bikething]

You beat me to it! My pics are the same except minus my backside ...

I can do a close-up of that if you want?

Thanks to everyone who came along, it was so good to meet you all and I had a great time. It was so interesting to find spraint with fish eggs in it, something I have never seen before in all my years of tracking otter!

I'm assuming the fish eggs are the round orange coloured bits... what are the green rice-shaped bits ?

 

[Mr Adoby]

Haaahaa! fish eggs, I wonder why they were not digested, interesting?
Andy

Could it be some intestinal parasite that tries to spread? But they seem to big for that?

A.

 

[Rhoda]

I can do a close-up of that if you want?
I'm assuming the fish eggs are the round orange coloured bits... what are the green rice-shaped bits ?QUOTE]

I think we get the general idea about my backside from the 3rd photo down
I don't know what the rice-shaped bits were, I thought parasite too. The orange bits were definitely fish eggs, Intertidal squashed one and we had a good sniff

 

[bikething]

I think we get the general idea about my backside from the 3rd photo down

sorted

 

[Intertidal]

Just echo what the others said - a great day out on a lovely stretch of river.
Thanks to Rhoda and Angie for arranging it.
It was really good to see so much sign. I too am intrigued by the fish eggs in the spraint. They were definitely fish eggs, trout I think from the size, sticky exterior and oily content, though they were not 'eyed' (embryo developing). They're pretty tough, but I didn't expect them to survive passage through an otters digestive system. We were told there was a fish farm upstream, so that seems the likely source.
Thanks again for a great day and nice to meet some of the folk on here in person.
I must make the effort to join in with more events.

 

[bear knights]

ha ha!! loved the bum picture. scared to laugh too hard in case there's a hidden gem of my backside thats just waiting to be used!
thanks to you all for turning up.Was a lovely way to spend a saturday and hopefully catch up with you again soon at xmas meet up.
the rice shaped things..... could be tapeworm? don't remember seeing them move, which I'm glad about as could have made me vomit, but size and shape about right for tapeworm eggs. Still none the wiser on the fungi. Closest thing I can see to it is common puffball that has aged? will get chicken of the woods to have a gander.....she knows everything!!

 

[Rhoda]

sorted

 

[ANDYRAF]

Rhoda, have you started training the pup yet, the sooner you start the better.

Andy

 

[bikething]

ha ha!! loved the bum picture. scared to laugh too hard in case there's a hidden gem of my backside thats just waiting to be used!

funny you should say that...

thanks to you all for turning up.Was a lovely way to spend a saturday and hopefully catch up with you again soon at xmas meet up.
the rice shaped things..... could be tapeworm? don't remember seeing them move, which I'm glad about as could have made me vomit, but size and shape about right for tapeworm eggs.

I thought tapeworm egg were small and white and lived in fluid filled cysts under the skin?.. need to do a bit of research methinks.. Would the tapeworm be in the otter, or in what it's eaten?

Still none the wiser on the fungi. Closest thing I can see to it is common puffball that has aged? will get chicken of the woods to have a gander.....she knows everything!!

closest I can find in the Roger Philips book is 'Scalycap'.

This was the thread I was thinking of but the pictures are missing..

 

[bear knights]

asked a colleague of mine who is a vet nurse about the 'tapeworms' and so diagnosis came from her. sounds about right from most of what I've read up on although started to fill a bit ill after looking at all the images so 'reseacrh' came to abrupt end. also said something about eggs being ingested by fleas which then just confused me no end so not sure what stage of life cycle we were looking at! have to be some mighty big fleas.
yep shaggy scaly cap does look right, more so than the spiny or gem puffball. just shows how dangerous this fungi malarky can be cos looked in three different books and not one had an image of scalycap looking like what we found. remember it being more noduly (get me with the scientific lingo!) than scaly though?

 

[Tadpole]

asked a colleague of mine who is a vet nurse about the 'tapeworms' and so diagnosis came from her. sounds about right from most of what I've read up on although started to fill a bit ill after looking at all the images so 'reseacrh' came to abrupt end. also said something about eggs being ingested by fleas which then just confused me no end so not sure what stage of life cycle we were looking at! have to be some mighty big fleas.
yep shaggy scaly cap does look right, more so than the spiny or gem puffball. just shows how dangerous this fungi malarky can be cos looked in three different books and not one had an image of scalycap looking like what we found. remember it being more noduly (get me with the scientific lingo!) than scaly though?

In the body of the host the last sections of the tape worm break off and are passed, (they look like flattened maggots) , inside the rice sized sections that break off are masses of the tiny tiny eggs that are ingested by fleas and mites

 

[bear knights]

ah merci.... now it makes sense. thought i was going to have to keep an eye on my cat and make sure it wasn't abducted by giant fleas.

 

[Rhoda]

Rhoda, have you started training the pup yet, the sooner you start the better.

Andy

Yes I have, he is very quick to learn!