Close Encounter with a Stoat

 Stoat stalking the water vole.

Below, lizards at Prees Heath

This water vole was almost a stoat's dinner last night. I watched it slinking along the stream while the vole sat eating, oblivious. The stoat was just starting to make its way up the bank when I let out a cough and it disappeared like lightning, closely followed by the vole. Stoats do predate water voles, but there are lots of rabbits nearby and well as field and bank voles and wood mice, so it wouldn't have gone hungry.