Polecat

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 A polecat is a pretty rare sighting here. In the 13 years we have lived here I have had two sightings in the car headlights(they are nocturnal)  on the lane, seen two dead ones (one on the road and one on a footpath) and caught the merest glimpse of one in a camera trap last month.

Polecats (possibly from "poule chat" the French referencing its fondness for chickens) used to be called the "foul marten" because of its ability to produce a powerful scent marking. The animals were persecuted by gamekeepers and until recently were absent from most of England and Scotland but have spread recently from a nucleus that survived in Wales.  My on line research shows the following distribution map.

The next image is of a road casualty taken on my phone in 2016
And lastly here again is the video clip from a week or two ago on my camera trap where there is just a glimpse. 

I have heard other reports of polecat in the area. A friend in Hartley a couple of miles to the East of us and another near Newbiggin on Lune some 8 miles to the West (where a polecat was discovered wreaking havoc in a hen house.) Polecat are much "chunkier" than stoats which are the other mustelids that  are related to them. The domestic ferret was bred from the polecat and occasionally one finds examples of polecats that have bred with escaped ferrets.

Diary Notes
Saw a stoat out of the window whilst I was typing this!
Yesterday a skein of around 50 pink footed geese flew over at about lunchtime heading South.
It's sleeting here today with a bitterly cold Easterly wind blowing. 3 camera traps out last night but little of interest in any of them.


 






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