Ermine in the Rocks
There is a lot of wild life in our valley including black bears, passing coyote packs, fisher cat, ravens, song birds, wood peckers, deer, moose, mice, lynx and of course the non-existent (officially) cougar a.k.a. the catamount as it is locally known.
Something we’ve been seeing a lot of recently is the ermine. It is a very small relative of the weasel. The one we’re seeing is barely bigger than the mice we see it hunting. Often we notice it on the middle terrace along the cliff by the whey driveway. We think it is the same one who pops up inside our old farm house at times.
Will has been getting still and video footage of the ermine and Ben put them together into a little movie along with some footage of our pet ferrets. You can see it over on Ben’s blog. Leave comments – he loves hearing from people!
Outdoors: 11°F/-5°F 7″ Snow
Farm House: 51°F/46°F
Tiny Cottage: 72°F/55°F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
Hi Walter,
Also known as a Stoat.
We have (at least) one.. it has taken a couple of our chickens this year, I think. And, before we had chickens, we could catch them in our garage stealing mousetraps, with mouse of course. Rather bold little buggers. Pretty too. They are brown in summer, “ermine” in winter.
I looked at the pic and said wow, that looks like a white ermine!, then I read your post…I have never seen one in the wild, only the zoo…those weasley babies are SO CUTE, but boy are they trouble makers…HIDE THE CHICKENS!
We haven’t had a problem but that is because our livestock guardian dogs hunt there ermine, weasels and other critters. We’ve often seen them chasing, and sometimes catching them along with mice and birds – snacks as they work.
I’m not sure what Kavi, pictured playing with our pet ferrets things of the ermine that visits in the old farm house. “Is it a pet or prey?” The way he looks at it I think he is debating the question fiercely. It was very interesting when we first got the ferrets since their wild kin are something he’s regularly dined on. Yet, he learned they were to be protected rather than munched and loves going into play with them.
Cheers,
-Walter
Thanks for the picture! My son saw one today under our birdfeeder. There’s a big snowpile under it and apparently the ermine was hunting the mice who’ve been tunneling through it.
We live down in Theford.
Miranda
Ermines are cool. Thanks for the info. I didn’t know that an ermine is essentially just a white weasel.