WILDLIFE encounters come in all shapes and sizes, but the thrill of seeing any creature for the first time sticks with you forever. This was the case for me in the 1990s, when I was working as a gamekeeper on an estate in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
I had a hunch that the secretive little thing I was looking for was present, as the tiny stream that ran through the valley, sourced from a spring at its head, was pristine. It fed
