The more you practice.....

Gary Player is credited with saying " The more I practice the luckier I get" and I guess the same goes for using a trailcam. But it's not just about practice - its also about putting in the hours of hard work. Having tried unsuccesfully to "catch" my otter at a seemingly good Betty's Bay site, I decided to widen the search. So we scouted other streams in the area for any signs of these elusive creatures and eventually found what we were looking for. An otter latrine!
Otters habitually use a 'latrine' area where one can usually find plenty of scat (faeces). These scats are often in various stages of decay and give a good indication of how recently the otter passed by (if you'll excuse the pun).
So we set up the trusty trailcam and retired for the night, hoping that we wouldn't be disappointed, again.
When we retrieved the camera the next morning our hopes soared because there was very fresh scat, and right in front of the camera. And sure enough: some great images. Not exactly National Geographic quality but way more exciting for us. Whoops of joy and high fives all round!
We'd caught them at last.

And a few days later.....