Signs of winter...
I've seen a few reports on Northants birding sites of sightings of white stoats - stoats in ermine. And a report of one in Norfolk from Twitter. I'm envious, I've never seen a white stoat (but they still have black tail tips). Except this Sunday, when out for my normal walk, a stoat ran across the path and it was half white - a half ermine! I wish I'd seen it for longer and closer and better. But I'm half way to seeing an ermine.
Presumably, in some complicated way, all that cold and/or all that snow before Christmas has 'persuaded' our stoats (some of them) to go white this year - or partly white.
If white fur gives you camouflage advantage then you don't want to be brown when the ground is covered in snow but neither do you want to be white when the snow and ice have gone. Can anyone tell me the mechanism behind the switch in coat colour - I am now fascinated and need to know? Here is some information from the Mammal Society.
Signs of spring...
If ermines are signs of winter then the good showing of hazel catkins around our way is a sign of spring. And the snowdrops and winter aconites are showing well too. I've heard it said that the snowdrops are all a bit smaller this year because of the cold weather. Is there anything in that, I wonder?
When will I hear my first chiffchaff and see my first sand martin? There were robins, great tits, and Cetti's warblers singing at the weekend.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Sorry I can't help on your ermine stoat query, Mark, you probably need a zoologist/micro biologist on that one. Maybe it is a similar biological mechanism to the mountain hare and the ptarmigan. It's encouraging you heard Cettis warblers singing in you patch this weekend, only we are concerned about our Cettis at Otmoor and the effect on them from very cold weather, not having heard them sing this year so far. But if they have survived your way maybe the cold winter has just given the Otmoor Cettis sore throats and hopefully they will strike up their song any time now.
redkite