Nature Notes: January 2015

What is the difference between a weasel and a stoat?

A weasel is 'weasely' identified but a stoat is 'staoatly' different.

I found a rather large but unfortunately dead stoat (Mustela erminea) on the old Bilbrough road which had no signs of injury. I watched another hunt in the garden. It would disappear down summer rodent burrows that were hidden by the falling leaves and then pop up in a different place.

However, once I looked at some photographs that I took I could see that it had no dark tip to the tail and was therefore a weasel (Mustela nivalis).

On the subject of carnivores I saw a fox twice in the same field on two different days. Although he was quite a distance off he wasn't taking any chances and took of at quite a rate.

A very distant fox puts a bit more distance between him and me

Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) can still be spotted in the fields and on the 17^th I saw five.

Birds

I found a dead barn owl (Tyto alba) on the road near the Street Cottages bus stop. It had a ring on a leg which I took to report to the BTO.

We are attracting some long tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) which love to peck at the suet.

I also saw a grey wagtail (Motacilla cinereaon) the roof but he hopped off before I could get my camera.

Here is what the RSPB have to say about the grey wagtail;

The grey wagtail is more colourful than its name suggests with slate grey upper parts and distinctive lemon yellow under-tail. Its tail is noticeably longer than those of pied and yellow wagtails. They have gradually increased their range in the past 150 years and in the UK have expanded into the English lowlands from the northern and western uplands. They are badly affected by harsh winters, and because of recent moderate declines it is an Amber List species.¹

Another rare sight was a red kite (Milvus milvus) flying over the fields of Bilbrough on January 1^st at 11:10. The Kite is described by the RSPB as;

This magnificently graceful bird of prey is unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail. It was saved from national extinction by one of the world's longest running protection programmes, and has now been successfully re-introduced to England and Scotland. It is an Amber List species because of its historical decline.²

Other sightings

The first snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) were seen in the garden on the 11^th and green shoots could be seen poking up through the leaf litter of B woods.

1 http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/g/greywagtail/index.aspx

2 http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/r/redkite/index.aspx