Stoat or weasel ?

[Bushwhacker]

Ok, 100% dipped tail, so Stoat !

Two Doctors of Biology at school agreed it was a Stoat too.

Next ID what killed this ?

No ring of Feathers plucked so I'm thinking not a Sparrowhawk but a fox ?
Found on the edge of the Sustrans 76 woods.

I'd still say Sparrowhawk. A fox would've crunched straight through that bone sticking out and eaten a lot more.

I'd hazard a guess that it was a really windy day and any plucked feathers were blown away.

There also looks to be some bird urate on the floor just off the tail end of the pigeon.

 

[TROOPER]

Back to Stoats & Weasels.

Stoat: Slightly larger than a Weasel, body length 258mm & 286mm dependant on sex, as said has a black tip to its tail which is the primary pointer to it being a Stoat and provided it is not in Winter coat ( then called an Ermin )the line between the brown body and cream unberbelly is straight. Dependant on where you are geographically in the UK Stoats also have varing coats, Southern Stoats stay brown all year round, Stoats in the far North will change to Ermin with the onset of snow, this change is a chemical change in the body of the Stoat triggered by temperature, in between you can find and there are several recorded sightings of piebald or mottled Stoats where temperature changes have effected a partial coat change.

Weasel: Roughly 184mm to 215mm body lenth so smaller than a Stoat, a very short almost stump tail with no tip and the border between brown body and cream / white belly is erratic unlike the Stoat which is straight. Weasels do not change coat colour and remain chestnutty brown and creamy white all year round.

Hope that helps a few of you out?

As for the Kill site photo i would concur with Bushwacker and say from the photo a Sparrowhawk kill.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

As for the bird kill, I'd say female sparrowhawk too...........missing head & plucked breast are conjusive to a sparrowhawk kill. Another critter could have moved the carcass from it's original position which may explain why there isn't a small pile of plucked feathers near by.

 

[21st century pict]

As for the bird kill, I'd say female sparrowhawk

Well if I dont ask ill never know, and it was a Female Sparrowhawk because?

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Thanks chaps, thought it a bit odd how the Head was missing !

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Well if I dont ask ill never know, and it was a Female Sparrowhawk because?

Because female sparrowhawks are bigger than the males & hunt larger prey such as pigeons whilst the males generally stick to smaller birds such as tits 'n' sparrows & blackbirds at a pinch ..............male & female goshawks hunt different prey species too, certainly avoids food competition between the sexes.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Back to Stoats & Weasels.

Stoat: Slightly larger than a Weasel, body length 258mm & 286mm dependant on sex, snip

Weasel: Roughly 184mm to 215mm body lenth so smaller than a Stoat, a very short almost stump tail with no tip and the border between brown body and cream / white belly is erratic unlike the Stoat which is straight. Weasels do not change coat colour and remain chestnutty brown and creamy white all year round.

Calling on the knowledgeable collective....

About two months ago I had just parked the car on the drive and was walking towards the house when, out of a hedge barrelled a short dark thing that made me think "mink"!

However it was all of 7 or 8 inches long (max) and dark grey to black all over - we keep chickens so I was slightly concerned - it shot across the road and into another hedgerow so I had no more than a fleeting glimpse.
Could this have been a juvenile form of either stoat or weasel or cold I have been correct in my initial guess?

Any thoughts?

Ogri the trog

 

[Bushwhacker]

That size is adult weasel and would be too late in the year for a juvenile stoat.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Calling on the knowledgeable collective....

About two months ago I had just parked the car on the drive and was walking towards the house when, out of a hedge barrelled a short dark thing that made me think "mink"!

However it was all of 7 or 8 inches long (max) and dark grey to black all over - we keep chickens so I was slightly concerned - it shot across the road and into another hedgerow so I had no more than a fleeting glimpse.
Could this have been a juvenile form of either stoat or weasel or cold I have been correct in my initial guess?

Any thoughts?

Ogri the trog

Impossible to be sure from that description but if you're sure it was a member of the weasel family (mustilidae) & you estimated it's size right then it might be a forrm of melanistic weasel. If however there is some kind of water course nearby & you could up your size an inch or two then I would suggest a young female mink apart from colour difference , they have longer, thicker tails than either weasels & stoats, which are quite noticable.

 

[21st century pict]

Because female sparrowhawks are bigger than the males & hunt larger prey such as pigeons whilst the males generally stick to smaller birds such as tits 'n' sparrows & blackbirds at a pinch ..............male & female goshawks hunt different prey species too, certainly avoids food competition between the sexes.

Yup that's fare enough!
However decapitation is common to a number of raptors and as Sparrowhawks tend to hunt smaller birds I just dont know,
but going solely on pray size, coastal location and known to be resident in the Firth of Forth I certainly wouldn’t rule out Peregrine Falcon.

Next ID what killed this ?
No ring of Feathers plucked so I'm thinking not a Sparrowhawk but a fox ?

The head is gone so the carcass has been moved, I can’t tell from the photo if the feather quills in the carcass were plucked out by a raptor or bitten off by a fox there are some small bones there which a fox would have no problem with so getting back to Stoats.

A close up of the carcass to see if the quills were bitten off or plucked out could prove conclusivley either way and possibly even if two different animals were involved.


Here’s a kill I found recently Seagull wing hanging about 5 feet up in a tree “ the wing fell from higher up” and on the ground below no bones or pellets only liquid faeces all in one spot who ever the raptor was it ate nearly the whole bird in one sitting. Buzzard probably..
.
Or alternatively it ether flew up the tree with some carrion or got disturbed and flew away with the remains of the carcass.