Stoat

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 We have seen a stoat in the garden over the last three weeks. We had some fabulous views of stoats last year when some took up residence and so this seemed like a good time to put all those together.


Stoats are widespread in Britain and Ireland. Weasels look similar but are much smaller and don't have the black tip to the tail. Just to confuse you further in Ireland they call stoats weasels and they don't have what we call weasels! My mother used to think it was hilarious when she said that "weasels are weasily distinguished from stoats which are stoatally different"!
I have some footage below of a stoat in our garden doing it's funny dance. Some people allege that they are dancing in order to mesmerise their prey. I have seen this activity many times and it was never followed by a kill. I am much more convinced by the view that this activity is a sort of fit induced by a parasitic infection of the brain.

We were fortunate last year that the female stoat decided to create a den in a dry stone wall that is visible from the house. She gave birth in this den and then one day moved her 6? babies to another den and I was fortunate to get photographs of this. Apparently stoats often move dens either because they are disturbed or because the den has become fetid and overrun with parasites (they store their dead prey in the den).



Later we saw the adult female dragging dead rabbits to feed her babies in another den.


Some weeks later the female moved again and we saw her carrying her much bigger babies .


We did once catch a glimpse of the adult male who is  much bigger than the female. It doesn't do to get all anthropomorphic about it but the male mates with the female just after she has given birth to her young ( there is then delayed implantation) and he mates with the young female stoats before they have even opened their eyes. As a result nearly every female stoat is almost always pregnant. A good survival strategy for the species.
Stoats in colder climes go white in winter. We have never seen ours go white but a near neighbour a couple of miles away has seen white stoats. Perhaps the fact that his land backs onto the higher hills would account for that.

Diary Notes.
I made a short trip further afield yesterday to Tarn Site nature reserve. I saw a little egret , a kestrel and about a dozen widgeon. Little egrets were very rare birds when I was a boy but they have been spreading further North each year and we have seen them regularly over the last 5 years.
Last nights camera traps revealed nothing but rabbits. Its much milder today - nearly 10 degrees C.

Little egret at Tarn Sike





















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