Bourne wildlife expert Ian Misselbrook on stoats and weasels

When it comes to familiarity with wildlife most people are aware, to some extent at least, of birds. After all, they are all around us - even in the middle of our towns and cities, writes Ian Misselbrook, a Rippingale nature columnist.

Apart from the grey squirrels, very common residents of our parks and gardens as well as woodlands and the wider countryside, our native mammals tend to be more elusive and many require special efforts to encounter them.

Unfortunately, most people only see badgers, foxes and deer after they have been killed on our roads.

Foxes and badgers are largely nocturnal, so in spite of being relatively common they are rarely encountered by humans.

Badgers belong to the family of mustelids which also includes otters, polecats, pine martins, stoats and weasels.

Like the badger, otters have increased dramatically since being afforded legal protection and you might b lucky to see them swimming in the rivers in our area. In fact, there have also been instances of them taking fish from garden ponds in Stamford and Bourne!

Most of us have to make do with a glimpse of a stoat or weasel as it rushes across a path in front of us.

Stoats are the larger of these two very similar carnivores and maybe less common at present as their main prey the rabbit has been reduced in numbers by disease. Stoats also exhibit a black tip to the tail absent from the weasel and sometimes turn white in the winter; mostly in northern Britain where snow is more common.

A few weeks ago, I witnessed a confrontation between a weasel and four corvids; a pair of magpies ad a pair of carrion crows. I am pleased to report that no birds or animals were injured during this confrontation.

The weasel, a ferocious and efficient predator despite its size, was a formidable adversary and fought off the four much larger birds until they gave up and flew off.

Weasels are perfectly adapted to hunt the voles and mice that are their prey. Their narrow bodies enable them to pursue the small rodents along their tunnels and down their burrows.

If you do come across a stoat or weasel on your country walks, you can sometimes attract these animals out into the open by sucking the back of your hand to make a squeaking sound similar to a distressed rabbit.

If you are still struggling to tell these animals apart remember that a weasel is weasely told apart because a stoat is stoatally different!