News from StoatCam

If like me you have a couple of dozen wood mice and voles in the freezer and have been wondering what to do with them, this may be the answer.  Since the excitement of seeing ten stoats in the garden a few weeks ago the cameras have been picking up only one at a time, although not always the same individual.  I noticed they have a particular liking for a space under a stack of large paving stones leaning against a sycamore at the end of the wall and were using it as a larder.  On one occasion a stoat went off to fetch a chunk of something, either rabbit or squirrel, and took it into the larder.  Three hours later it (or another stoat) returned and took the prize off elsewhere.

I had seen similar activity there as well so I put in a frozen vole and a couple of days later a stoat found it.  It brought the vole out and then returned to see if there was another one.  I think because stoats (and weasels) are used to raiding small mammal nests and bird nests they are always hopeful there will be more than one item of food.  This time there wasn't so it took the vole back in and either ate it there or took it out the back door as it didn't reappear.

Expecting this might become a habit I put in a mouse but no stoat returned.  Instead a magpie found the mouse and it certainly remembered and came back several times to see if I had left another one, which I hadn't.

Stoat sightings are intermittent at the moment but here's an example of what the cameras do see.

One of the cameras in the new wetland in Gosforth Nature Reserve is also seeing a stoat regularly although it is suspicious of the camera and doesn't hang around.  It is only a mile away so it could be one of the recently dispersed youngsters from here.

Stoat kits in the garden

This week has seen great excitement in my garden.  I was away for a few days and on the first morning back I saw a stoat outside the front door and later one on the drive.  There had been very little stoat action on the garden trail cameras while I was away but on Monday evening there were four stoat kits running up and down the drive so I knew something had changed.  They were so fast and unpredictable that photographing them was difficult.

Later I saw more playing on a tree stump in the meadow.

After seeing the kits on the stump I set up an extra trail camera.

Here is a brief view of what they got up to on the wall.

Several times the cameras picked up a kit carrying food.  The first one here has a vole which it doesn't want to share and the second is carrying what looks like a rabbit's head.

After only 48 hours they were gone but they saved the best till last.  I had been wondering whether there were four or five but you can see on the next video there were ten!  I presume this is mother and nine kits, assuming there weren't more out of view.  A stoat family moving en masse like this is known as a caravan.

Here's another edit of the video with a slow motion replay to help count the stoats.

Jenny MacPherson's book Stoats, Weasels, Martens & Polecats says that a stoat litter usually has six to nine kits which are born in April or May and become independent at about 12 weeks. The book also says 10 stoats will eat about 0.5 kg of meat a day which translates into a lot of voles and rabbit heads so I expect this last video was the mother rounding them all up to move on because they had eaten all the food.

The cameras are still in place so I'll know if any of the stoats return.  Although they didn't stay long I am just grateful they came while I was here to see them.

Stoat news

First a stoat I met while counting dragonflies at Hepple.  I saw it running through the grass pursued by a crow, presumably hoping to steal any catch.  The stoat then ran straight up an enormous ash tree and was searching for bird nests while being mobbed by anxious small birds. My camera was in static dragonfly mode (manual focus, single exposure, slow speed, low ISO, etc) and the only change I could make quickly was to autofocus but I managed a few photos.

In this photo the blur on the right is one of the birds mobbing the stoat.

The stoat didn't find a nest and eventually gave up and ran straight down the tree as agile and as confident as a squirrel.

The stoat in the garden has been frustrating, as stoats often are.  I saw it by the gate with something in its mouth, possibly a kit, and it ran across into the meadow, towards the wall.  I fetched a camera and stood waiting for half an hour in case it returned.  Just as I gave up it came back with a second kit but I missed the photo.  So I fetched a tripod and stood waiting for nearly an hour but it didn't reappear.  It also didn't show on the cameras on the wall so I don't know where it went to.  There are plenty of other log piles, stone piles and brash piles in the copse so it could be that there is a stoat nest in there somewhere.

The cameras can only see the front of the wall and the stoat does appear a few times a week. Mostly it just runs by but sometimes it does a dance.  This is the most recent.

Another taste of what the stoat gets up to.  It does seem to be aware of the cameras.

One time it pulled a rabbit out of the hat, almost literally.  The rabbit isn't full grown and isn't very fresh and this was the only camera that saw it.  You can hear a blackbird alarm in the background.

I live in hope that the stoat will keep the kits in the garden and that they may yet appear on the cameras.

Conflict on StoatCam

The stoat has been having a bit of bother with the neighbours recently.  A few weeks ago I posted a video of the stoat chasing a squirrel but sometimes it is the other way round.  A male stoat could kill an adult squirrel but a stoat of either sex is more of a threat to the squirrel's young.  Squirrels are nesting in the trees in the garden and I hope the stoat will nest in the wall so there is a very uneasy relationship at the moment.

I made a short video of some of the action on the trail cameras.  A lot is off camera and the views were a bit distant so the images are cropped with some loss of quality but you get the idea.

The stoat (I am assuming it is always the same one) shows up on the cameras regularly and I have had two very close sightings in the past week.  The first was through the window for a few seconds from about a metre away when it climbed up through a hedge.  The second about 10m from the front door was bit longer as it probably felt safer at that distance.  It seems to cope with me being around but I just hope the conflict with the squirrels doesn't put it off.  Here's brief video of the stoat with what looks like a field vole.

Weasels are still around in the garden but they are too small and too sensible to get involved with the squirrels.  Most times I see them dashing through the camera box but this one came out to play on the wall while the stoat and the squirrels weren't looking.

Stoats and weasels

I rarely see a stoat or a weasel in the garden but I now have three trail cameras set up to look out for them, one on my "weasel wall", one in a camera box and a third watching the base of a dead sycamore and adjacent low wall.  Since the start of the year stoat visits have been regular but fleeting, enough to show there is one around but not enough to suggest it lives here.  It doesn't go into the camera box but appears on the other two cameras.  Last week it briefly checked the base of the dead sycamore and then ran up the tree, disappearing from view - something I have seen several times before.  This time, however, it came back down after only 15 seconds carrying prey, identifiable as a vole in slow motion.  There is an old starling nest hole about 3m up the tree which is probably where the vole was, but why and how it got there, and how the stoat knew, is mystery to me.

Not to be outdone a weasel appeared on the same camera, checking on a delivery van before running towards the camera.

Most of the stoat recordings are on the wall.  Here is one doing what stoats do, although quite why is another mystery.

Although weasel visits are less common, one also showed up on the wall last week, not quite as frantic as the stoat.

My hope is that one of these will decide that the wall is a good place to make a nest and raise young.

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.

End of year favourites - Stoats and weasels

2025 has been the best year yet for my trail cameras.  The number of cameras has increased and I am learning how and where to set them up.  The "weasel box" in the garden is a permanent fixture and is the best way of monitoring who's around.

After all the weasel excitement here in 2024 this year has been a bit quieter.  The highlight was seeing a mother carrying her kits past the gate, moving from one nest to another.  I have sneaking suspicion she might have been in my weasel wall and was unsettled by a stoat that was hanging around.

I remodelled the interior of the box just over a year ago with some old terracotta land drains to make it more interesting (for us and the weasels).  This male was new to the box and having a good look round.

I tried baiting the pipes with a dead mouse in the hope of seeing the weasels regularly but it hasn't been a great success.  The first time I put the mouse in the top pipe and the weasel could smell it but couldn't find it.

Next time I put a mouse in a bottom pipe and a male did find it but it didn't return for another one so for the time being I have given up.

Stoats haven't been as regular visitors to the garden as weasels over the years but I saw a lot of one female in late summer and autumn.  The first sighting was near the gate.

Soon after this one visited the weasel box, something stoats are generally reluctant to do.  (This also gave me the opportunity of making the composite photo at the top of this post to compare the sizes of female stoat and female weasel.)

Then in October I was lucky enough to see a female stoat (perhaps the same one) watching me from the base of a dead tree not far from my front door.

That was the cue to set up a camera and the stoat stayed around for a few weeks.

In the last month or two it has all gone quiet, with only an occasional sighting of a weasel in the box but I hope for more activity next year.

Stoat and weasel in the camera box

The camera box in the garden is generally not baited but relies on the animals' curiosity to tempt them in.  It also attracts lots of mice, voles and shrews and so will smell of prey.  Weasels are usually happy to explore the box but stoats are rare visitors.  The female stoat who has been hanging around the garden for a while recently made two visits to the box.

There were also two very brief sightings of a weasel running through so I was tempted to put in a mouse from a trap in the roof, hoping the weasel might take it.  But the stoat got there first.  It was interesting that, having found it, the stoat checked the coast was clear before taking the mouse away, something that weasels do regularly.  Unfortunately the camera was in between its maximum 20s night-time recordings when the stoat came back to pick up the mouse.  The banging in the background is the sound of fireworks.

I put in another mouse and this time there was a rare night-time visit from a weasel but it didn't take the mouse, probably because it was still frozen.

Before the weasel had time to change its mind the stoat was there early the next morning and did take the mouse.  It was back six minutes later to check it hadn't missed another one.

The next bait was a bank vole and this was taken by the weasel.  Again she checked the coast was clear before running off with her prize.

I have plenty more mice in the freezer so it will be interesting to see if these two become regulars.

StoatCam in October

Since I first spotted the stoat at the beginning of the month I have had at least three trail cameras set in the garden to try to keep an eye on it.  There have been 33 recordings, up to 12 in 24 hours and at other times none for a week.  Most have been under the dead sycamore but it has also showed up on the "weasel wall".  (Interestingly the cameras haven't recorded a weasel since the stoat arrived.).  Here's a slightly misted-up view with the dead tree in the foreground, the weasel wall behind at the edge of the meadow and the copse behind that.

I don't think the stoat lives here but it certainly has a couple of hideouts - under the tree and in the wall.  Twice it has been carrying food.  The first time in daylight it brought a piece of what may be rabbit or possibly squirrel.  It took it underground for a few seconds and then brought it out again and ran off.  Eight days later the stoat emerged from the hole with something similar at night (I hope it wasn't the same piece).  It wasn't seen going in but there is another entrance round the back out of view.

There have been a couple of other night-time recordings, something I have only ever seen once with a weasel.  I think stoats have less to fear from owls and are more confident to be out in the dark.

On one intriguing occasion the stoat jumped up onto the wall to look at something behind in the copse.  Then it jumped down and ran under the camera.  Ten seconds later (I have trimmed the gap) a squirrel appeared from behind the camera and the stoat was already back on the wall, watching (red arrow on the photo).  After a few seconds it raced after the squirrel and disappeared out of view.  It didn't return to any of the cameras so I'll never know what happened next.  Squirrels are pretty fast as well and are better at climbing trees than are stoats.

The last video shows the stoat on the wall.  As gardens go I think this is pretty reasonable habitat for a stoat.  Let's hope it sticks around into next year.

Meeting mustelids in the garden

I had a couple of amazing encounters in the garden in the last few days.  Only 15m from my front door I saw a pair of beady eyes watching me from the base of a dead sycamore.  The stoat ducked back in but reappeared several times without leaving the safety of the hole.  I managed a few short videos on the phone but the quality wasn't great so I set up a trail camera to keep watch.

The stoat reappeared 80 minutes later and did so repeatedly over the next hour and a half before running off.  It was very alert, very fast, and seemed very aware of the camera.

In the end I had about 10 minutes of video but these two excerpts give you a flavour.

I was fascinated to see how much time the stoat spent standing up to see better what was going on.  I am reminded that stoats were sentries when the weasels took over Toad Hall in Wind in the Willows.  This is E. H. Shepard's illustration.

A few days earlier I met a weasel.  I was about to close the gate when I saw a face at the entrance of my trail camera box, only 3m away.  The weasel saw me and ducked back into the box, only to reappear at the other entrance closer to me.  It stood watching, wondering what to do and like the stoat it stood on its hind legs to get a better view of me.  Then back in and through the box, out and across the roof back towards me.  The whole episode was repeated and it went through the box five times in a minute and a half before deciding to go off along the hedge.  All the time I hadn't moved and the weasel showed no fear.  There was no camera outside the box but this was the view from inside.  You can also hear it running across the roof.

There hasn't been much weasel activity recently so I hope the stoat sticks around and I'll have more videos to share.