We have had a couple of really wet days and last evening the Brook was flooded right up and over the concrete ramp. By lunchtime today, the flood had gone down a little and at 2 o'clock I went to have a look to see if there were any fresh otter signs. There were, some really clear and fresh, as well as a new sprainting. I can not be 100% sure, but it is my guess that the flood water had only receded off the ramp sometime in the morning meaning that the otter had sprainted during the morning and in broad daylight!

These tracks were tremendously interesting as they told a real story about what the otter had done. You could make out where it had left the water and seen that it had bounded along, the second print from the left is a hind pad and if you can imagine how these tracks were made, you can image the otter loping along with an arched body. In the next shot you can see the distance between these sets of 4 and the last one is scuffed where it pushed off in to a jump up on to the raised pile of silty mud.

Then  it scratched a "sand castle' together and then sprainted.

Around the mound  I could see tracks that led back to the water and ended there, indicating the otter had jumped back in to the brook.  

This is quite a small otter, either a female or cub because if you compare the prints to my car keys you can get a really good idea of the size. This is much smaller than other tracks I have seen before, although I have seen other small prints previously amongst larger ones. Be aware that you can not always make out a 5th toe and on the picture below the 5th toe is only just visible on the right hand side.