Otters on the River Stour?

On a walk along the infant Stour yesterday today I noticed some sizeable holes dug into the soft earth of the bank. They looked as if they were in regular use, and, bending down, I found what I thought might be otter spraint. It consisted of small soft green pellets in mucus. I knew spraint is meant to have a very distinctive smell, so I sniffed it. The smell was unusual but not unpleasant and my partner's verdict was that it was "herby".

When I returned home I googled otter spraint and found a surprising amount of information. People variously claimed the smell as being of musk, or newly-mown hay, or jasmine tea or - more prosaically - of fish. What I should have done was to pull the pellets apart and try to find tiny fishbones, just as one can find the bones of small rodents in owl pellets.

Our walk took us past the remains of Clare Castle and Clare's former railway station, across the Stour and so round in a loop towards home.