August brings us sunshine and smiles in the stream... and it also brings us the results of nature going about her quiet business.
This week, a tale of two watery juveniles who met their death, a kingfisher and an otter.
Guests on holiday at Watermill Cottages found the body of a beautiful kingfisher. This year we've all been seeing them whizz up and down the stream, so fast, it seemed impossible that anything could stop them. Its body wasn't damaged, just the tip of its beak was bent.
We stood amazed at the biilliance of its plumage, stroking its darting, iridescent, gleaming, turquiose-blue and gasping at the burnt orange contrast.
The same day, other guests found half a body of an otter at the edge of the stream in the valley. Again, they've been heard and seen all season. What would kill an otter? When we went to look nature had taken over and the carcass was gone - foxes, badgers, crows feasting as they tidied.
I rang Slapton Ley Field Centre and spoke to Nick Binnie, Reserve Officer, who gave me a fuller picture.
There were three likely causes of the otter death. Perhaps a juvenile otter had strayed into the territory of the Gara Brook otter family and had not picked up the scent of the spraint. Spraint is how otters mark their territory - and they defend it viciously.
Or it had died of illness. Or perhaps a female otter had given birth to three kits. Nick told me that a female can only raise two kits to adulthood; if she attemtps to raise three they all die. So she waits until they are juveniles and then makes a decision which to abandon.... which is the weakest... This is the most likely cause of death.
Nick asked me a few questions about the kingfisher. 'Does it have a white tip to its beak? if it does, then it's a juvenule.' I looked, and yes, it did have a white beak tip.
'The problem is, as with human juveniles, they have a taste for speed but are not yet experienced enough to navigate fully so there's more likelihood of them crashing into things like windows and dying.'
His other option, that perhaps a sparrow hawk had taken it and had been disturbed before plucking it, and had dropped it, seemed unlikely as there were no wounds to the body.
So now we know...
... yet In animal classification, 'Halcyon' is the genus for kingfishers. A word that also means 'happy, joyful, carefree', as in the halcyon days of childhood. It comes from the Greek word for a bird which in legend is linked to the kingfisher.
The legend says that the bird nested on the sea in winter, which it
calmed in order to lay its eggs on a floating nest. It meant that the ancients expected two weeks of calm
weather around the winter solstice. This is why we use 'halcyon' as a term for peace or calmness as well as joyful and carefree.
I can see why a bird of such beauty inspired legends and words. It seems apt that it lived in our beautiful, peaceful and carefree valley.
We are delighted to say that the EA has approved the screen already in place at Watermill Cottages for the water turbine and declared we are eel friendly. So the electricity we generate for our house and for Barleycorn Cottage really is eel-ectricity!
Here in the Gara Valley we're lucky enough to have a thriving eel population, as this year's EA fish survey showed, as well as an equally thriving otter population for whom eels are a fast food. The Slapton Ley Field Centre have told us that most female glass eels drift into the Severn Estuary whilst most male glass eels drift around the south coast.
Our eels enter Slapton Ley through the overflow at Torcross before making their way as elvers upstream to mature, which takes several years. They then transform from yellow eels to silver eels to make their way back to the Sargasso Sea to mate. if they fail to reach the sea then they transform back into yellow eels and wait for the next year.
There was much excitement in summer and early autumn as many eels were visible from the bridge and lawns at Watermill Cottages.
To help raise awareness of eels here's some information from The Environment Agency website - they are quite extraordinary creatures, long-lived and at ease in salt and fresh water.
Eel facts from The Environment Agency
Eel numbers have dropped since the 1980s to very low levels across Europe. As a result European regulations are now in place requiring action by all European member states to reverse this decline. Legislation comes into force on January 1 2015 to protect eels and their diminishing habitats. This includes having all weirs, turbines and abstraction areas checked by The Environment Agency (EA) for eel-friendliness, and installing expensive screens if required.
Why the eel decline? The EA says it's not caused by one problem alone, but it's a complicated picture. Over-fishing in some parts of Europe, parasites, climate change, pollutants such as pesticides and heavy metals probably all have parts to play. One of the most likely causes is the huge decrease in available habitat for eels in our freshwater rivers, canals, lakes and tidal estuaries. Since the Second World War, we have drained lowland rivers, straightened channels and created modern flood defence barriers. This sort of water management reduces suitable habitat and makes it difficult for eel to move freely through our rivers.
The eel is a famous international marine traveller completing only part of its life cycle in freshwaters or coastal areas, where it is fished for by both rod and net. Spawning has not been observed, but it is believed to take place in the spring, deep in the Sargasso Sea, between Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Larvae and glass eel
Maturing females, although their eggs have not been collected, are reported to contain up to 10 million eggs. The eggs develop into a 'leaf-like' larva called a ‘leptocephalus’ It was originally thought that these larvae took three years to migrate from the Sargasso Sea to the European coast but, recent studies suggest that the journey may take as little as 12 months.
When the larvae reach the continental shelf they change into what is called the 'glass eel' stage before continuing with their migration. In the British Isles, from around May, once temperatures have reached about ten degrees Celsius, the glass eel make their migration from the estuaries into freshwater.
Once the glass eel develop pigmentation they are referred to as 'elver' and are very similar in shape to the adult eel. To facilitate their passage through the estuary and into rivers they use the tidal currents, migrating upstream on the flood tide. During the ebb tide they move out of the current towards the bank side to prevent being washed out to sea.
In fresh water the eel lives on or near the bottom, often digging into the gravel, and migrates slowly upstream. During this period they are generally referred to as yellow eel. Moving further upstream eel become fewer and more dispersed. Eel in the upper reaches of river systems are generally fewer and they tend to be much larger than in the lower reaches. In the lower reaches the populations have a higher proportion of males, which contrasts with the upper reaches where females predominate.
Silver eel Male eel stay in freshwater for between 7 and 12 years, maturing at an average length of about 36cm. Females stay between 9 to 20 years and mature at a larger average size of about 50cm, though eel can grow larger reaching up to 1 metre in length and live as long as 40 years.
When the fish mature they change to a blue/silvery colour and migrate seaward during the autumn, usually during dark stormy nights.
Species - Eel, Anguilla anguilla (L.)
Weight - rarely 2.3kg (5lb), very few over 3.2kg (7lb)
Length - rarely exceed 100cm
Age - maximum recorded 40 years
Location - estuaries and freshwater
Behaviour - catadromous
Preferred habitat - slow-flowing, deep water, sand, silt and weed
Feeding - May-October, most active at night, forage in debris
Natural food - crustacea, worms, small fish.
Maturity - 8-15 years
Spawning - Sargasso Sea at depth
Migratory habits - August-December, adults migrate to sea; February-May, glass eel arrive at coastal waters; May-September elvers migrate upstream
Predators - pike, eel, fish-eating birds, otters
Well, it rained. And it rained. And then it rained some more. And on December 22 2012, The South Hams was so wet that there was nowhere for the water to go but up and over. Everywhere was affected by the flooding and high ground water. And the Gara was too, rising over the bridge and on both sides of it. We've never known it this high.
It was a tough day for everyone however the silver lining came in the late afternoon, watching a male otter on the lawn at Watermill Cottages - he was eating a fish that he'd caught in the turbulence you can see behind - and I filmed him.
We'd had otter sightings all year and this confirmed that the family of otters living on the Gara Valley and Slapton Ley are very comfy around Watermill Cottages. This one knew we were all there and kept watching us. Clearly the exceptional weather and river conditions mean that the otter had to eat what it could find when it found it.
It is rare to see otters in the daytime.
You'll see in the film clip that the river is high, brown and fast - today, January 14 2013 - it doesn't even reach the top of my wellies, and is clear, shallow and gentle again.
Well, our guests in Crownwheel Cottage in early September could hardly believe their luck.
They were woken about miudnight by strange whistling sounds coming from the river which runs below the double bedroom window.
They peeped out of the curtains, keeping the room dark, and there below them was a pair of otters playing in the stream. The night was clear and the moon bright so their view was good. It looked like a mature pair, male and female.
We had had traces of otters - there were fish remains on the lawn in spring - and we're delighted that they are so close. Who knows, maybe they'll breed in the valley? Some years ago it was not unusual to see otters and their babies on the lawn outside Crownwheel Cottage, and there have been sightings in the past two years on the main lawn and in Quack Cottage's garden.
When Nick from the Slapton Ley Field Centre was here the following Monday for the weekly Gara Brook water test he was thrilled to hear the news.
We're just longing for the chance to take a photo!
So now we know... 
