Otterly amazing sight for new wetlands officer

Jo Sayers had an amazing stroke of luck on her first day at work in December as Swindon's Water for Wildlife Project Officer when she had an extremely rare sighting of an otter in the River Ray.

Jo, who has lived in and around Swindon for most of her 30 years, will be working with the people of the town for the next three years to make their rivers and wetlands wildlife-friendly. The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust post is a new one funded by Thames Water.

She described the extraordinary encounter. "Mark Satinet, the County Mammal Recorder, has worked up and down most of the rivers in Wiltshire, building artificial otter 'holts' and surveying for otters and water voles. He was showing me the otter habitat on the River Ray, when he suddenly called out that he'd just seen an otter. We looked round and there it was, sitting in the river, staring at us curiously for 15 seconds, before vanishing beneath the surface and swimming off upstream. Mark had never before seen a live otter in the wild in Wiltshire as they tend to avoid humans and come out mainly at night. They range over 10 to 15 miles and you could spend days looking and not catch a glimpse. And there we had one in Swindon."

The return of the otter to rivers across the Southwest has been a conservation success stories, the result of years of effort to improve river habitat by cleaning polluted rivers and ensuring there is plenty of riverbank vegetation.

Jo's new role involves working with local communities and businesses to maintain and enhance rivers and wetlands with maximum benefits to wildlife. She will also be monitoring wetland wildlife with a view to improving and increasing their range of habitat.

The River Ray close to Swindon sewage treatment works at Barnfield will be a particular focus area and Jo wants to involve the community in the project.

She hopes to see the sterile machine dug canal improved by introducing meanders and a range of habitats for different insect, animal and bird species.

"There are deer, mice, water vole and otters here," said Jo. "There are tremendous opportunities to create a magical area of wildlife very close to the town centre."

Jo would like to hear from anybody interested in making Swindon a pleasant place to live for both humans and wildlife and can be contacted on 526229 or mail: jos@wiltshirewildlife.org