WeaselCam and StoatCam in April

Stoats and weasels continue to turn up regularly on the garden trail cameras but I don't think either animal is living here.  Over the 30 days of April there were 14 weasel visits and 10 stoat visits.  In one eight day period there were five stoat sightings, three on camera and two by me looking out of the window.

I caught another mouse in the roof and retrieved it after perhaps two or three days.  I put it in the camera box for a couple of days but it attracted no attention so I put it outside, in view of the second camera.  A weasel eventually came to collect it when it was about a week old, so presumably not very appetising.  Weasels are used to their prey being stolen by magpies and crows so this one immediately brought its prize in under cover, before getting a better grip and running off with it.

I think most of the weasels and stoats I am seeing are males and this perhaps discourages any females.  This weasel, however, I think is a female, noticeably smaller and slimmer than a male.

One thing I have learned - stoats don't like the camera box.  I have only once had a glimpse of each a male and a female stoat in the camera box but they are in the garden fairly regularly.  It may be that the entrance pipes are a bit small for them at 100mm but they are the largest that will fit the box.  Or perhaps stoats prefer more open areas to hunt in.

Another lesson is how often the cameras miss a weasel or stoat when I might expect a recording.  There are five cameras in various places - both the camera boxes are also covered from outside but often only one of the inside or outside camera will record.  I think this is partly because the animals are too quick for the cameras and perhaps because they sometimes don't appear in the "trigger zones".  Even when there is a recording it is usually very brief.  Here are a few glimpses of stoats (perhaps all the same one) in slow motion.

Weasels, on the other hand, continue to visit the boxes but even then the views are brief.  Here are a few glimpses of weasels, all but the last at normal speed.  Although weasels are said to hunt day and night I have never seen one on the cameras at night.  The black and white infrared clip in this sequence was after dawn but not yet light enough for the camera to be in colour mode.