The much maligned red fox

Just when you thought it was safe to open the newspaper again, yet another fox storey, this one with a slight comic irony but not one to dwell on as I am getting sick of the Fabulous Mr Fox. This tale comes from deepest Belarus where an inept hunter was shot in the leg by and injured fox that fought back as he attempted the coupé de grace with his rifle butt. What a fool, me thinks he got what he deserved by such flagrant misuse of a firearm, what’s worse it could have been an innocent passer by that the foxes struggles had shot, what price another bullet in Belarus. I cant believe the stupidity of his actions, as a firearm owner I am only glad these incidents are few and far between.

Anyway we move on to the tale of the winter stoat or ermine one of natures near mysteries and as beautiful and animal as you are likely to see.

Stoat in almost complete ermine

I mentioned briefly recently the struggle of the stoat, the rabbit and the well meaning member of public well this time it would appear the stoats of the same location, Druridge bay have donned their winter garb of finest ermine. For those that don’t know that is they have change coat colour to match the surrounding winter landscape, well that’s the theory anyway. Several species do it ptarmigan, mountain hares and Arctic foxes all turn white in the winter. They do it as response to climatic and environmental changes such as temperature and decreasing light levels.

The stoat does it either fully or partially and when fully white it is called ermine and used to adorn the high and mighty. The characteristic difference between stoats and weasels is the black tip to the tail of the stoat, this still remains when in ermine and gives the classic spotty look on pictures of dignities in their ermine stoles.

Stoatly hungry

These past two years have been severe enough over most of the region for me to have seen stoat in ermine several times, this year perhaps because of the early onset of the winter I saw my first one in early December. Last week I saw a grand total of four in three different locations all in broad daylight in bright green backgrounds all hunting rabbits. Excellent to see but I have to wonder how vulnerable they must be to aerial predators, as one I saw was visible to me two fields away.

A good way to get a closer look is to follow this little trick which has rarely let me down. When you see your stoat or weasel for that matter, stop still, crouch down and wait for the little fellow to reappear, as he will invariably do especially if you entice him back out by imitating the squeak of a mouse or the squeal of a frightened rabbit, some thing we all new how to do when we were small boys with a blade of grass. My young son sadly did not, a testament to this modern age of Xboxes and an indoor sedentary life. not that I encourage him to stay in but when no one else goes out what can you do save take him out yourself, which is what I do and where he learned the subtle art of charming a stoat.

A rare day out with gun and son allowed the opportunity to spend quality time passing on some wisdom, not that its really appreciated until they are older, well that was what I was like but we were coming back with a few bunnies from a trip afield, Teesdale to be precise, when hopping along the track towards us was not one but two small stoats, youngsters I guessed. Completely unaware of our presence until my son let out a shriek of delight and they vanished into the undergrowth. Disappointed he turned to me asking what they were, they looked like our ferret and things like that, so I told him to be quiet, to watch and learn.

I bent down and plucked a fat blade of grass, placing it in my hands I blew a banshee like squeal several times, I repeated it at varying tones until there, the grass twitched and a furtive nose appeared and then another, beady little eyes shone from the grass and whiskers tweaked and twitched. Out they slid no more than three feet away, my sons grip intensified around my wrist as one approach so close we could hear it sniffing until it reached my boots where it climbed up looking upward wondering what was all this about, mesmerised it swayed from side to side trying to focus on the giant rabbits. All of us in a trance the second of the two slightly shyer rushed the first and they both erupted into the most amazing display of antics only stoats can do.

Only stoats can have this much fun

We watched them a few minutes longer until they were gone from sight and as we walked back to the car I began to wish I had not showed him how to imitate frightened rabbits, my ears still hurt!!