As regular readers will know, the dog and I are often to be seen tramping the footpaths around farmland, the local spinney, and the drainage ditches known as lodes. A year ago today I videoed said pooch running through the snow as Britain supposedly suffered the onslaught of some cold snowy weather in the form of the so-called Beast from the East (video here). It wasn’t at all beastly, just a bit cold and a bit snowy and it brought the winter thrushes (my video here), the Redwings and the Fieldfares, into our village gardens from the fields.
By contrast, today it’s an incredibly balmy 18.5 Celsius out there. Certainly not too cold to sit down by a style with the dog for a short rest on the off-chance that some interesting birds might come along. Well, there were the usual Dunnocks, Goldfinch, Robins, Long-tailed, Great, and Blue Tits, Blackbird, Rook, and Wood Pigeon.
Then, a very worried sounding Wren darted into the closest hedgerow attempting to evade a predator! It was almost murder, she stoat.
The stoat (Mustela erminea) is sometimes known as the short-tailed weasel (to contrast it with the smaller least weasel). In Ireland, where there are no least weasels, it’s simply called a weasel. But, the same larger species, in its almost completely white winter fur is known as an ermine.
In this heat, it’s Stoatally tropical…almost. Fur fake’s sake…
He’s now in the Vertebrate section of the Imaging Storm Wildlife gallery.