Working in nature conservation means there are often frustrating days when you feel all forward momentum, fought for so tirelessly, has been ceded and you're struggling to get a toehold on the rockface. It must be the same as any profession which looks to alter the mainstream, shift the conversation and swim against the current. But we all love a challenge, right?

Fortunately there are myriad exciting times, galvanising hope and giving reassurance that steps in the right direction are possible and, moreover, desirable for the overwhelming majority of us.

I've documented many such moments here as it's crucial to share the good news; last month's feature on ospreys for example, or last summer bringing what for me may well be a career-defining breeding success for avocets in Devon. Apologies, but I cant stop referring to that!

This week yet another sighting put a spring in my wellingtons, as I trudged through the first driving wind and horizontal rain of autumn. 'Two otters seen from the Discovery Hut hide first thing today!' it read and it made my heart leap for several reasons.

Firstly the location of this lovely sighting was a pond in which we carried out a lot of work last winter. The sight of apparent habitat destruction often horrifies our aesthetic sensibilities, but it is hard to under emphasise how important intervention can be to a habitat. Ponds are not static things, from the moment it is first created, naturally or otherwise, it begins an inevitable journey towards its disappearance. The first glimpse of vegetation emerging from the water’s surface is also the first sign of its ultimate demise to silt, pioneer scrub and wet woodland. So it was here. Which meant that in February this year we got stuck-in to this pond with an excavator and dredged silt, reeds and reedmace, spreading it on the bankside. Initially it looked a terrible act of vandalism, now it looks amazing and so thought these two otters.

Secondly, the fact it was two is particularly pleasing. Otters are by nature solitary animals unless they are in the act of copulation or a female raising the kits alone. So, this sighting confirms otter breeding on the lower Axe Estuary and, against a backdrop of plummeting water quality, this gives me cause to hope. Loss of otters, one of the world's most threatened mammal species, is usually cited as being due to habitat loss; pollution and human persecution. We've addressed two of these issues locally and the otters are evidently doing very well. They are seemingly coping with our dreadful exploitation of their river water.

Lastly, this is one mammal for which we are bucking the global trend. As I mentioned, somewhat hyperbolically, the Eurasian otter is one of the most threatened mammals on earth and that is due to their enormous global range - found across the continent from Britain to China - and the fact that they are declining across most of it. Again, the reasons faithfully recited are: habitat loss; pollution and human persecution.

In the 1980s the UK was in the same boat, otters were restricted to a tiny population in Cornwall and remote Scotland. Nowhere else. The Wildlife and Countryside Act came into force in 1981 and gave serious legal protection to otters (along with a raft of other threatened species) and ever since their status has been improving. By the 1990s they were back in Devon, by 2000s they were present on every river in the county and now, judging by road collisions, they are doing pretty well throughout.

So what's really changed? Water quality has improved historically taking a dramatic, and inexcusable, nose-dive recently. Some habitat restoration has been achieved, but I would argue this is not as significant as the resulting recovery. Its really quite simple, we stopped hunting, trapping and killing them. When it comes to the conservation status of most of our predators, this underlying factor is usually the predominant cause.

So, my heart goes out to those two beauties. Eat those fish, enjoy that pond and this winter I'll do my best to get the next one ready for your kits next summer.