WeaselCam

More fun with the trail camera.  When my friends Naomi and Cathy visited recently we were watching a weasel running in and out of the garden, each time coming back with something in its mouth.  At first I thought it might be the weasel moving its kits but we soon realised it must have discovered a mouse or vole nest and was bringing the prey back for its own young.  It was so fast and unpredictable that I didn't manage to get a photo so I set up a trail camera.

The weasel moves very quickly but the camera managed three recordings.  In the first it was carrying a bank vole, in the second a field vole, and in the third a wood mouse.  Twice it went past the camera to trigger it and returned seconds later so the camera could record the whole sequence.

In the video you can see why I failed to get a photo.  Because the weasel is so fast I have added a replay at 25% speed.  I don't know why it twice went past carrying its prey and returned within seconds still carrying it.

The next video is edited further and is at 10% speed.  You can clearly see that the weasel spends most of its time airborne.  A mouse or vole weighs around 30g and a female weasel less than 100g so it is probably carrying about one third of its body weight while bouncing through the air.

I had hoped it was living in a stone wall I built at the edge of the meadow but trail cameras there didn't pick it up.  There is a larger pile of stones in the middle of the copse so I suspect it may be in there.

Even when we couldn't see the weasel we could track its progress in and out of the garden from the cloud of small birds following it and uttering alarm calls.  I have heard the alarms frequently and have often wondered if it meant weasel, and now I know.