A Weasel and a Water Vole

One Man and his Dog  {  Peter Tonkin and ' Woody ' } are patiently waiting for a couple of chance new wildlife encounters to liven things up at the Stithy hide

                                                              And this little live wire below certainly did just that !

How often do wildlife Photographers get the chance to Photograph a fast moving Stoat or Weasel and when we do it can often be a question of    Which species was it ?  if not enough detail is captured.

Well our chance came by surprise while waiting for posible Water Rail sightings at Stithians Southern Cut-off hide a few days ago and the image below clearly shows the short brown tail of a large Weasel rather than the bushy black tipped longer tail of a small Stoat.

This weasel was fast and immediately started racing about at the waterline where we think it must have already seen or scented prey.

The weasel gets scent of its target prey in the classic  ' Nose in the air '  image above and it follows the scent on to a nearby hidden burrow entrance in the three shots below.

The weasel didn't hesitate and surprised us as it shot straight down what looked like a very tight burrow before we could capture the action.    Believe us they are fast !

This large, lucky and never before seen Water Vole  { approx  18 x 5 cm }  shot out from the other end of the burrow near the waterline and made a fast swimming escape out across the surface into deeper water.

 In the image below the weasel exits the burrow and sees that the Vole has escaped and {  perhaps a little disappointing from our stand point  ]  decides not to follow it into open water.

When we were sure that the Weasel had moved on I moved the grass cover back from the approx 5cm diameter burrow and dropped a peanut at the side of the entrance for scale then took a mobile phone image to show the burrow size and the details of grass blades cut off at a forty five degree angle around the entrance before recovering it.

It is not often that two new and unexpected photographic subjects are captured on camera in the same day in such a well used location by a couple of veterans like Peter Tonkin and I,  So to say we were both delighted at these two new encounters would have to be an understatement !!