News from StoatCam

Mustelids seem to be taking over the blog and this week there is more news of stoats in the garden.  After all the excitement in October and November it went a bit quiet and almost all my cameras were watching otters, polecats and weasels elsewhere.  The Camtraptions camera wasn't contributing much so I brought it home and set it to watch the weasel wall.  And straightaway there were stoats.  The videos from this camera aren't great and this is cropped as well so it's rather grainy but you can see what is going on.  The two clips in this video were only a minute apart but I am pretty sure there were two stoats - larger and smaller so male and female.  The second one is a bit farther away from the camera so it is difficult to be sure but see what you think.

Then the female went through the camera box a few metres away.  I have edited it at half speed to give a better look as she rushed through.

A few days later a stoat went through so fast that there was only a glimpse of its tail on the first frame.  However the tail is longer than the female's tail (she's on the left here) so again I think there is also a male around although I don't yet have a video of two together.

I brought a Browning camera back here to get better pictures and over the past week there have been stoat videos every day, up to 10 in a day.  Most of the activity is on the wall but also under the dead sycamore where I first saw a stoat last October.  I think there has occasionally been a larger (∴ male) stoat but it is mostly a female.  It is also encouraging that the female is defending the wall against squirrels, as in this video.  She must like it here.

Then I moved the camera a bit closer and you'll see that the stoat knows it is being watched. Notice also that it looks rather pale so although we aren't far enough north to expect a full ermine I wonder if this is a partial winter coat.  

Two years ago I did get video of male and female stoats only 10 minutes apart and that female had white legs and a white tail.  I'll see if I can spare another one or two otter cameras to keep an eye on the stoats.  I'll post more news when I have it.