{"id":238632,"date":"2025-11-01T23:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T23:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238632\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T23:31:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T23:31:22","slug":"tees-barrage-otters-delighting-visitors-and-photographers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238632\/","title":{"rendered":"Tees Barrage otters delighting visitors and photographers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tom BurgessNorth East and Cumbria<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761431770_428_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/76adb6d0-b66a-11f0-bb84-5d792dcc8544.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Rick Ingham A close up picture of a wet otter standing on a log surrounded in water with orange leaves floating on the surface.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Rick Ingham<\/p>\n<p>The otters have become frequent visitors to the Tees Barrage<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A family of otters has been delighting nature photographers and visitors to a river barrage this autumn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The animals have visited the Tees Barrage in Stockton for the last few years and are becoming a more &#8220;common&#8221; sighting for visitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mike Lowe, owner of the San Seb Coffee van, said the best time to see the animals &#8220;is from now until the end of the year&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said: &#8220;It is really nice how they attract people to the area and families who have never seen a wild otter get that chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Amateur photographer Rick Ingham, from Thorpe Willoughby, North Yorkshire, has tried to grab a snap of the otters for the last three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been a wind up really,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Every time I have been up I have not managed to get them on film.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761431770_428_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/95fb1d60-b670-11f0-bb84-5d792dcc8544.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Rick Ingham An otter rolling around on a platform at Tees Barrage. It has rolled on to its back with its front paws in the air.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Rick Ingham<\/p>\n<p>The otters have been spotted playing both in and out of the water<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">This year he finally got lucky and captured the otters playing in the water, along with a striking shot of an otter standing on a log surrounded by autumn leaves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I got incredibly close and it was one of those photographer dream moments,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;You are trembling while you are trying to press the shutter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761431770_428_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/efd68b20-b671-11f0-bb84-5d792dcc8544.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Rick Ingham An otter biting into an eel while in the water. The eels body is writhing out of the water.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Rick Ingham<\/p>\n<p>The presence of otters are often an indicator of clean water<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Steve Ashton, wildlife manager at the Tees Wildlife Trust, said: &#8220;Healthy otter populations are often indicators of clean, unpolluted water and it&#8217;s another positive indicator of how the Tees has improved over the past few years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I was there on Wednesday and there were quite a few people looking out for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;I managed to see one myself for the first time in the Tees Valley. I was over the moon.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom BurgessNorth East and Cumbria Rick Ingham The otters have become frequent visitors to the Tees Barrage A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-238632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}