High Borrowdale of the close-encounter with a Stoat High-pitched squeals and chirps pepper tussocks of grass low on the fell-side, close to our track. Hard to pin down the sounds, to tell how many creatures are here. In a shadowy hollow amongst tussocks I spy a slight movement and a young creature looks out at us, curious. I doubt it's ever seen people before. There's squealing from higher up the bank. I keep my camera focused on the kit as its mother darts down and grabs it by the neck and whisks it away to safety, back into her family. 'Weasel', he called. But he saw a black-tipped tail which confirms it's a Stoat.
I share my images with a naturalist friend who reminds me that Weasels are very small, slim and much paler in colour, more of a ginger tan. My images show a classic Stoat colour, with a creamy white throat and belly .
The man who called weasel was afraid the creature might fall into a drainage ditch. But Stoat kits are independent at twelve weeks and they're efficient hunters, climbing trees to take birds and their eggs, and down in burrows to take rabbits. My friend tells of a Stoat recently hunting young rabbits in a garden, killing six and dragging them out of the burrow and across a patio. Stoats will hunt voles, mice and rats although rabbits are their favoured prey. An adult rabbit is five times the Stoat's size but they're energetic and determined hunters and can wear a rabbit down in a lengthy pursuit.
A female may mate in the summer of her birth but with delayed implantation of up to ten months the kits are born in spring. Her litter will be between 6-12 kits.
The man who called weasel was afraid the creature might fall into a drainage ditch. But Stoat kits are independent at twelve weeks and they're efficient hunters, climbing trees to take birds and their eggs, and down in burrows to take rabbits. My friend tells of a Stoat recently hunting young rabbits in a garden, killing six and dragging them out of the burrow and across a patio. Stoats will hunt voles, mice and rats although rabbits are their favoured prey. An adult rabbit is five times the Stoat's size but they're energetic and determined hunters and can wear a rabbit down in a lengthy pursuit.
A female may mate in the summer of her birth but with delayed implantation of up to ten months the kits are born in spring. Her litter will be between 6-12 kits.
These are my first-ever images of Stoat, a creature I've seen before but have never photographed. All images on this website are copyright- please respect this. Once-in-a lifetime images are special.
Look on-line and you'll find wonderful Stoat images. I particularly admire one of a Stoat all white in winter ermine, except for its eyes and the black tip of a bushy tail. It leaps over ice at full stretch, its body reflected in ice.
The last time I saw Stoat was a glimpse on Scout Scar. I was sitting on an erratic, a boulder shaped like a sofa, when I heard corvids in commotion and looked up to see what bird was mobbing them. They were in full cry, a cloud of dark corvids flying toward me. I couldn't make out what was harassing them. Closer and closer they came. Then a blackbird erupted in alarm from a holly growing beside a dry stone wall and a Stoat shot by in a flash of ginger. Weasel or Stoat? I followed the corvids pursuit for minutes but saw the mustelid only for a moment. No time to tell if it's tail was black0tipped and bushy.
Look on-line and you'll find wonderful Stoat images. I particularly admire one of a Stoat all white in winter ermine, except for its eyes and the black tip of a bushy tail. It leaps over ice at full stretch, its body reflected in ice.
The last time I saw Stoat was a glimpse on Scout Scar. I was sitting on an erratic, a boulder shaped like a sofa, when I heard corvids in commotion and looked up to see what bird was mobbing them. They were in full cry, a cloud of dark corvids flying toward me. I couldn't make out what was harassing them. Closer and closer they came. Then a blackbird erupted in alarm from a holly growing beside a dry stone wall and a Stoat shot by in a flash of ginger. Weasel or Stoat? I followed the corvids pursuit for minutes but saw the mustelid only for a moment. No time to tell if it's tail was black0tipped and bushy.
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