Budehaven A Level student Henry Kirkwood was very pleased with this photograph he took of an otter in Bude Canal near Helebridge last Sunday (above). Henry said that his dad Rupert had been kayaking in the canal earlier in the day and had watched an otter eating a small fish at the lock gates near Rodd's Bridge. When he got home to Holsworthy he persuaded Henry to relinquish his hold on his computer game controller and come to try to photograph the otter. By good luck the otter was swimming around quite close to the canal car park at Helebridge. "I couldn't believe how fast it moved under water," Henry explained, "but everywhere it went it left a trail of bubbles. And it was so sleek and slipped through the water as smoothly as a dolphin in the sea." He went on to say: "It popped up from a dive and stopped to look at me for a moment. That is when I took the photograph. I am very pleased how the picture has turned out because the otter is framed by a circle of ripples."