Stoat

stoat
in plain sight
easily recognised

I was back in the same spot as Monday's  Green Hairstreak, but it was too cool and drizzly for butterflies today. Something made be look over my shoulder and I saw a small creature scampering down the track behind me.  I turned and it dived into a woodpile. I didn't expect to see it again, but I crept forward, camera at the ready just in case. It was clear that I'd interrupted this stoat's journey, as it peeped out a few times, to see if I'd gone yet. Finally, it headed off into the grass behind the pile, and a minute later appeared down the track behind me again - I'd been outflanked.

So, a noisy and blurry picture of a stoat - but it's the first time I've been close enough to get any sort of picture of a stoat, so it has to be my blip. Frankenstein Stoat was a little sharper, but didn't seem quite fitting.

Less happily, it seems that we're in for a myxomatosis year. I came across a few dead rabbits, and sadly one sitting in plain sight which didn't seem to have long left.  There is a lot of dog walking on the moor, and I fear many of these rabbits will be in for a bad end.

A few steps away, delicate Wood-sorrel.  A spring day of nature's contrasts.