Stoats and weasels aren't the easiest of mammals to see but today we've had at least three stoat (two on Melcombe Path Lodmoor, one on Radipole) and a weasel (below) seen across the Weymouth Wetlands. Not entirely sure why they are so many visible at the moment, so if you've got any ideas please leave us a comment at the bottom of this blog post.
This weasel appears to have a burrow right next to the path at the end of the Buddleia loop by the concrete bridge. We saw it come out of the burrow carrying a small mammal and thought that it was delivering it to its youngsters. This is something they do regularly to stop other predators locating their nest site. With otter and badgers also resident on Radipole it is a red hot mustelid spot at the present.
I fear that the shrew was comprehensively tamed! It was Luke's series of shots Robert but he wasn't alone, the little fella was posing most of the day. And by little fella I mean the weasel not Luke... we don't need any confusion along those lines!
Did you take these pictures Luke? I've only just noticed in the bottom picture that the weasel rooted out a little shrew. Who won that little battle?
Hi Cookie. Weasels are considerably smaller than a stoat with the head and body length of just 20cm or so, the stoat is about 1/3 larger in all dimensions. The dead give away is that the stoat has a very prominent black tip to its relatively longer tail. I once had a stoat break off from it's pursuit of a rabbit to stop and examine me and a volunteer on its hind legs, before resuming the ultimately successful hunt. It was comical in an almost cartoon sense...
Hi all, can you tell me the difference between a stoat and a weasel please?
...and just to show that the mustelid mayhem wasn't a flash in the pan I had an early morning weasel maniacally charging about by the Radipole viewing shelter at dawn this morning to add to yesterdays stoat. What price for an otter by the weeks end?