News from WeaselCam

The camera first picked up a weasel in my weasel box on 1st August, one month ago.  Since then a weasel has appeared on the cameras nearly every day and I occasionally get a glimpse of one near the house.   I think the weasels are probably living in, or at least camping out in the weasel wall and I frequently hear the "ground predator alarm" from small birds in the copse behind the wall, mainly wrens and robins.

Here is a little montage of some of the activity over the past few days.

I thought the weasels might be becoming less interested in the camera box, still occasionally dashing through but not stopping to explore, so I moved it into the wood and it rekindled interest from the weasel I call no 3 (it was the third one to appear).  This is one of the two smaller animals.  It initially seemed very wary and still is by the look of it, although it eventually had a good sniff around.

There have been 29 weasel sightings on the cameras in 31 days, not counting multiple cameras recording the same event.  The weasels are strictly diurnal, never appearing before 07.00 or much after 19.00.  Although the numbers are small I have been able to chart the time of sightings, with about one third being between 1400 and 1600.  If they stick around I'll be able to refine the graph further.

It is interesting that the box now rarely sees a small mammal (vole, shrew or mouse) in daylight but they are there in numbers at night.  I expect the box smells of prey to the weasels and smells of weasels to the potential prey animals.

And a surprise.  One camera also got a glimpse of a stoat a couple of days ago.  It was brief so I have added a slow motion replay.  A stoat is larger, has a longer tail with a back tip, and has a straight dividing border between the brown fur on its back and the white belly.  It is not really darker than a weasel but here was in the shade.

Despite being comrade villains in The Wind in the Willows, stoats and weasels don't mix.  A stoat could kill a weasel so the weasels usually stay clear of trouble.  I hope this stoat was only passing through.