News from WeaselCam

First a first.  Ever since a stoat appeared in September (but didn't go into the camera box) I have had two boxes in action all the time in the garden, with wider entrance pipes than before.  And at last a visit from a stoat - larger and more strongly-built than a weasel and with a longer, black-tipped tail.  It was only brief so I have added a slow-motion replay which makes it look even more powerful.  Note the straight border between the brown and white fur (it's a wiggly line in a weasel).

After the flurry of weasel activity in the camera box in August things quietened down a bit with nine recordings in September and four in October.  Since then it has picked up again with a weasel visit to at least one box roughly two days in every three in November and almost every day this month.  Judging by the fur patterns under the chin and the size of the weasels I think there is more than one visiting.  The first one below, in the same box as the stoat above, is longer, and probably a male, while the second is smaller and presumably female.  The colour variation is due to the camera which reacts a bit unpredictably to varying light levels and isn't easy to correct.

The weasel I am seeing most often is the larger of the two above.  He (I presume it is a male) has a distinctive under-chin mark and is different from the three individuals that appeared in August.

The weasels are confidant and inquisitive in the boxes and often have a quick look round, sometimes round behind the camera.  They are very often scent-marking as well so I expect the boxess smell of weasel, not that I can smell it.  This probably attracts other weasels but seems to be discouraging smaller mammals - the cameras now rarely see shrews, mice and voles in the daytime, only at night when the weasels are asleep (they hope).  Incidentally I have only once seen a weasel in the box after dark, with now dozens of daytime recordings.

One very windy day a lot of dead leaves blew into the box.  The weasel(s) made several visits but didn't find anything hiding.

Last week a weasel turned up with prey.  It dashed through the box in a blur twice.  There was five second gap, which I have edited out, and I added a 1/10th speed replay.  It isn't easy to see what it is carrying but whatever it is has an impressive tail.  I think it is probably a baby rat.

At the beginning of the month we had snow and I found weasel tracks in the garden - the first time I have ever seen them.  The snow was about two inches deep, so quite deep for a weasel.  As it bounds its back feet land exactly where its front feet were.

The weasel came into the box during the snow but didn't stop and was still busy hunting.  Having checked round the box they very often run back straight through like this, sometimes more than once.