I have been running two camera boxes in the garden for the past few months to keep an eye on weasels and whatever else makes an appearance. There were 12 weasel sightings in December, only one in January and so far there have been three in February. On one morning last week one camera recorded an American grey squirrel, a weasel and a stoat all within two hours. The sighting of the stoat was frustratingly brief as it was too quick for the camera. It only captured this frame of the tail.
The fascinating thing is that it shows partial ermine colouration with a white tail. In northern regions some stoats turn white in winter, retaining just a black tail tip, although this far north (55°N) the change is more often partial. We can't see the rest of this one but it is obviously mostly still brown. Below is how it (or another one) looked in early December.
Here is the weasel from the same box.
And here's the squirrel!
Weasels usually explore the box rather than just running through and very often return more than once during the same recording. I wish stoats did the same - perhaps I need a bigger box and a bigger pipe. This weasel activity was all recorded within two minutes although I have edited out the gaps.
The day after the stoat appeared in the box I saw it from the kitchen window, just outside the box. I was willing it to go in again but instead it ran right across the lawn towards me with something in its mouth, presumably prey. With luck it will stick around and I'll be able to post more pictures.
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