Catching up with the Weasels

A few days ago I finally got the opportunity to visit the potential Weasel filming and photography site. First thing I did was to look for my DLSR lens cap which I last had here a few months ago and luckily I found it. I know there cheap to replace but I'm not one for replacing things if I can find the one I lost with abit of effort luckily I had dropped it right next to last years Weasel hole. There were no droppings or food remains near the entrance but the hole had definitely been made smaller to keep out any larger creatures.  With no luck at the old home I decided to check under a few corrugated sheets of metal over a woodland ridge nearby. We usually find a family of voles who scatter when the sheet is lifted up.

Today there were no Voles in sight, instead we found a few feathers and lots of fresh Weasel droppings so I'm guessing the Weasels had quite a feast!!!. I am hoping that the Weasels are going to nest here or are bringing prey here to feed on. I am glad to see there still around and in the next few weeks I'll be putting in a few days a week watching the area to see if I spot can them and possibly get a few cheeky photographs.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Return to the Weasel woodland

Last year I was visiting one of my local woodlands and I ended up finding a Weasel den. I knew it was as the entrance was bordered with lots of poo, prey remains. After a few months of watching the area around the hole I found a young dead weasel. I think the weasel remains were being removed by the adults to stop predators being attracted by the body. I never actually filmed or photographed the Weasels as the woodland is a good hours walk along the canal. I checked the hole a few weeks ago and found that the hole entrance into the base of a tree had been made smaller possibly by the Weasels to keep anything larger than them from getting in or another animal using. I am hoping they have returned and will be using the hole to raise this years family so I will be checking to see if there is any fresh poo or prey remains. 

If they do I will be setting up nearby and creating a little photography area with some logs to get some cleaner shots.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Discovery in the woodland

Just a quick update from a previous post Break from the birds - Who's home is this? 

and the other day we went to check the area and just on the edge of the hole we made a discovery. A small and thin body was covered in flies just on the holes entrance and it really did stink. After taking a closer look at the animal I came to the conclusion it was a young weasel which had died in the nest and maybe its parents had dragged it out to stop the spread of disease to the other young. 

This means there's a family of weasels somewhere in the woodland which is great and hopefully I can film/photograph them in the future as I have photographed Stoats but not there smaller relatives. I have no clue where to start as there smaller, faster and tricky with all this vegetation so I may have to setup a log area to tempt them in and give me a better chance of photographing them.

Thanks for visiting

 Mike

Butterfly meadows on my local patch

Break from the birds - Who's home is this?

While walking through a large Bluebell woodland on the edge of my local patch I noticed a hole in the base of a tree trunk and outside the hole were droppings in a neat pile and these may hold the clue to who is living there.

 My first visit

 

A few days later and there was a Wood head and part of the body outside the hole

 Polecat poo taken a few years ago

The Bluebell woodland is bordered by lots of a Railway, canals, farmland, rivers and has a marshy pond area so it's quite a varied habitat which makes my decision on what is living there. Due to the size of the hole I was left with a few options Mink, Weasel, Polecat or Stoat. The droppings size and contents narrowed it down to 2 options as the droppings were in a tidy pile outside of the hole rather than where the animal sleeps or has young and I have seen this behavior before when tracking/researching Polecats and my other culprit is Mink. The droppings contained fur, fish bones/scales and feathers which is both of the animals main diets but the strange thing is there was no strong odor in the hole or coming from the fresh or old droppings. I have come to the decision that the only way to find out who's living there is to setup in a hide and wait for the culprit to return.
I will update as and when I get some results in my observations from the woodland. 
I have named Otter wood due to the location being one of my best places for a possible Otter encounter which can be seen in older posts on this blog.

Thanks for visiting 

Mike

PS-Hopefully it's a Polecat as I have never seen a pure wild one on my local patch!!!