Why Dawn Rewards the Patient

Riverside wildlife keeps a different clock to the rest of us. By mid-morning the towpaths are busy, dogs are splashing through the shallows and every heron has been pushed a field further on. In the first hour after sunrise, though, the bank still belongs to its residents. Otters are often finishing a night's hunting, while kingfishers are feeding hard after a cold, damp night. Low, slanting light picks out ripples and wakes beautifully, and the air carries sound a long way — which means you will usually hear a kingfisher before you see one.

Aim to be in position thirty minutes before sunrise. Give your eyes a full ten minutes to adjust to the gloom, and resist the urge to sweep the river with a torch. Sit down, get comfortable and let the scene settle around you. Most people give up after twenty minutes; the best sightings tend to come in the second half hour.

Reading a River for Otters

Otters are creatures of habit. Learn a stretch of river well and you will start to recognise the places they use again and again. The classic signs are worth knowing:

• Spraint — dark, oily droppings left on flat stones, bridge ledges, fallen trunks and grass tussocks, often at the edge of a pool. It smells faintly of fish and new-mown hay rather than anything unpleasant, and otters use it to mark territory.
• Prints — five toes, broad pads, usually with a little webbing and claw marks in soft mud. Look along the flat silt at the mouth of a side stream.
• Runs and slides — flattened channels through bankside grass and smoothed slides down steep banks into the water.
• Holts — resting places in root systems, rock piles and undercut banks, sometimes beneath a bridge. Keep well back from anything that looks like a holt.

When you are watching the water itself, look for a steady V-shaped wake with a dog-like head at the front, a long back and a thick, tapering tail. Otters often surface briefly with a soft puff before diving again. Slow pools, deep bends and the riffles where fish gather are all good bets, particularly in the hour around first light.

The Kingfisher's Blue Flash

Most kingfisher encounters begin with a sound: a thin, sharp tsee as a small bird hurtles low and straight along the water, faster than seems reasonable. The colours — electric blue-green back, fiery orange underparts, dagger bill — are startling when you finally get a clear view through binoculars.

Kingfishers fish from perches rather than hovering, usually choosing a low branch a metre or two above the surface, and they return to favoured spots again and again. Check likely branches for a line of white droppings, which marks a well-used perch. Watch for the small, neat dive, followed by a return to the branch with a minnow or stickleback that gets beaten against the wood before being swallowed head-first.

Their nesting burrows are dug into sandy or earthy banks, often overhanging water, and are in use from April through to July. If you find a bank peppered with small round holes, treat it as a nursery and move quietly away.

Fieldcraft that Makes a Difference

• Stay still. Movement alarms otters and kingfishers far more than scent or quiet conversation.
• Use binoculars. An 8x42 pair is ideal in low light. Carry them on a chest harness so they are always ready.
• Keep your distance. Stay twenty to thirty metres back from the bank edge and approach behind cover. Never silhouette yourself on the skyline.
• Walk slowly and stop often. Twenty paces, then a minute of standing and listening, works far better than a steady march.
• Sit for twenty minutes. Birds and mammals resume their routines surprisingly quickly once you become part of the landscape.
• Dress quietly. Rustling waterproofs and crunchy gravel will undo all your good work, so choose soft fabrics and gentle footwear.

Kit and Comfort

Early mornings by water are cold and often damp, so a flask is not a luxury. Take a sit mat or a folded bin bag to keep your trousers dry, a small torch for the walk in, a notebook for times and locations, and midge repellent between June and August, when riverside vegetation becomes lively. Wellies or wading boots are useful on muddy banks, and a hand lens turns track and spraint identification into a proper pleasure.

Leaving the River as You Found It

Otters are protected by law, and disturbing a holt is an offence; kingfisher nest sites are protected too. That means no pushing through bankside reeds and willowherb, however tempting the view, because trampled cover crushes burrow entrances and leaves otters exposed. Keep dogs out of the water and on a lead where banks look sandy or burrowed, especially from April onwards.

If you are lucky enough to get a photograph, use a zoom rather than your feet, and never use flash. Log your sightings with your county wildlife trust or local records centre — that small effort helps protect the stretches of river you love returning to.