Predator!

White Lion Meadow (Tesco) vole

 Weasel or stoat watching me at Edgeley Road. Below, Edgeley Road water voles.

Of course stoats and weasels both eat water voles, so I had mixed feelings when this one stepped out of the nettles. However, they are native predators so shouldn't do too much damage. I've seen both stoats and weasels on this site before, as well as otters and polecats (check the tags on the right for previous posts)

Tons of voles, and a weasel

This water vole has an injury to its eye, but the cut is healing well and the vole seems fine.

This water vole is a young adult, in tip top condition.

  

Various latrines. Very often the presence of feasting slugs will indicate where there's trampled poo!

Four Spotted Chaser?

Green Hairstreak

Slow worm

Excitingly, lots of water vole latrines at Cuckoo Corner, Whixhall Moss.

I put a trail cam out to watch a burrow where activity had declined, and caught this weasel on film! So perhaps the voles have shifted up- or down-stream.

The lovely rounded bottom of a vole.

A climbing vole at White Lion Meadow! They are not built for acrobatics, and

 often fall off into the water.

An adult vole that seems to be blind in one eye. It could be another fighting injury.

Not a great photo, but the first one of a baby vole this year.

Moth Traps and Other Wildlife

Very surprised mustelid - juvenile stoat?

Brimstone moth 

 Poplar Hawk moth

 Muslin moth

Waved Umber

Pale Tussock

Buff Ermine

Still a Few Signs

 Very small smooth newt from our garden

 Probably water vole prints (though could be rat)

 Water vole droppings, and below, a burrow plus trackway

I think this is weasel scat

Not much vole activity now it's autumn, but on the plus side our garden is busy with hedgehogs including this family of five. Mum quite often comes and feeds separately, but in the bottom video she is being harassed by two of her four young (who are old enough to know better).

The Mustelid Contingent

Stoat

Water vole

Adult rat - the relative sizes

It was a surprise to pick up this stoat on the trail cam. This makes the fourth mustelid I've seen in the field (if you count finding otter spraint as a 'sighting'). I've also seen weasels and a polecat here. All these predators will eat water voles, but because they're native and in the balance, vole numbers stay buoyant. The worry is if mink invade, because they are non-native carnivores and can wipe out whole colonies of water voles in a matter of weeks.

Weasel Again

 Accusatory stare.

 This is how small weasels are. The hole he is peeping out of is a water vole burrow!

I've now spotted this weasel - or one very like it - three times in six weeks. This is obviously his (her) hunting patch. I must see if I can find out about the impact of weasel predation on water vole colonies.