Weasel or stoat?

You never know what you might see through the kitchen window. Freshly stocked bird feeders and half coconut shells stuffed with fat and seed tempting the tits, chaffinch, woodpecker, nuthatch, yellow hammer, dunnock and squirrel.  Chickens scooping up the spillings. Touch wood no rats this year just wood mice and voles and ..... wow, it’s  a weasel.  It hopped onto the window sill, down to the patio then up into a drainage pipe.  I fetched the camera, tripod on the kitchen table and pointed it at the end of the pipe. Success. Out it came with a vole or mouse in its mouth then off behind planters and into the log shed.

My few seconds of video stretched with the slow motion facility ... but how do I know it was a weasel? I think there’s a touch of black at the end of its tail making it a stoat. What do you think?

Squirrel escape

I’d seen this squirrel carry nesting materials up the tree but what could it possibly be bringing down? In its mouth was a large ball of baby squirrel. I watched as it made two trips from the vulnerable Scots pine to a nearby tree with lots of ivy. Was it the buzzard circling nearby or the crows that nest in the same tree?