Stoat! Badgers! Fox!

A good day all said and done, starting with a (s)totally unexpected sighting first thing this morning. I had just arrived at the pond and glanced over the wall into the churchyard. A dash of movement caught my eye. A stoat! It was romping in and out of the bushes near the wall pausing just often enough for me to get a few shots. hard to beleive that this tiny agile creature is classified as part of the same family as the slow, lumbering badger. They are both mustelids.

As for the identification (and why it's not its close cousin, a weasel), that's simple…. (old joke alert!!!!)…. A weasel is weasily recognized while a stoat is stoatally different! (groan).

Actually they are quite easy to tell apart, if you can see their tail. The stoat has a black tip to the tail. 😉

The badger is at the other end of the mustelid size scale, and sure enough one of the regular young badgers was in the garden again this evening. With a fox. As luck would have it, the fox moved away as soon as I spotted them, and I was only able to get photos of one followed by the other.

Plus one lucky shot. Look who's crept back into shot behind the bush. 😀

Finally, as though all that wasn't enough, I've just got my first photo of one of the adult badgers.

Nature Blog Network
site stats
Camera note: stoat shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. badgers and foxes photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.

Tags: , ,

This Post Has 11 Comments

  1. derWandersmann

    22 Aug 2012

    A stoat! What next? You're missing the Water Rat, Moly, and Mr. Toad. I sense a drama coming on.

  2. chthoniid

    22 Aug 2012

    Stoats- better there than here :/ Very destructive to a lot of our native brids sadly.

    That said- what a great capture 🙂

  3. Words

    22 Aug 2012

    Chthonid, yes they are highly predatory and extremely efficient. I can imagine the havoc they would cause to NZ wildlife. It's less of a worry here: we have lots of rabbits!

  4. Words

    22 Aug 2012

    dW, stoats are a particular treat to photograph. I doubt I'll ever match the first shot I ever got of one, but these weren't too bad.

  5. serola

    23 Aug 2012

    Great shots :hat:

  6. Words

    24 Aug 2012

    Hi Sami! Thanks! 🙂

  7. serola

    24 Aug 2012

    Hi Words 🙂 Summer holidays over and I will be more online again 😀

  8. Words

    24 Aug 2012

    Sami, that's good to know. Hope you had a great holiday. :up:

  9. serola

    28 Aug 2012

    Originally posted by Words:

    Hope you had a great holiday.

    :yes: And many nice pictures :happy:

  10. SittingFox

    29 Aug 2012

    A stoat!! You really are having a great run of sightings :hat:

  11. Words

    31 Aug 2012

    Got to admit, seeing the stoat was a good one.

Comments are closed.

Close Menu