Winter coat find (dead wildlife image)

[Dogoak]

Came across this poor wee stoat today dressed in it's winter (ermine) coat. Obviously well camo'd for the present weather.
Also saw the first of the waders arrive today, oyster catchers, so some early signs of spring's arrival.

 

[Toddy]

Always a shame to find one dead like that, like finding an otter or pine marten.
No sign of what killed it ? is the reddish mark pre or post ?

The blackthorn bloomed this weekend here and the birds are making a heck of a racket too. I put the remains of my carding into a mesh bird feeder and hung it up and the birds are already pulling out strands of it, so some of them are thinking of nesting.

M

 

[nic a char]

Oystercatchers live year-around in Scotland - lovely birds.

 

[Dogoak]

Not sure what/who got it, bit of blood around the eye on the other side, I haven't investigated, not sure if the red is pre or post. It won't go to waste as the skull will become part of my sons natural history collection.

Oystercatchers live year-around in Scotland - lovely birds.

Yep, funny things, quite noisy at times, we only see them here for the breeding period.

 

[Herbalist1]

I had quite a collection of skulls when I was a lad. I passed them on to a younger relative years ago - wish I'd kept them now for my son.
What method do you use for cleaning the skulls? I always thought museum beetles were the way to go but couldn't justify maintaining a colony to process occasional finds. So macerating in water was the method I mostly used but it's a very smelly, unpleasant process - think that might put my son off, he's a bit finicky

 

[Dogoak]

I have macerated skulls in a bucket of water, just had it out the way where the dogs can't get at it! Others have just been put on the roof of an outbuilding and left for nature to do it's thing.

 

[MegaWoodsWalker]

That's a shame. Nature is good at cleaning up dead critters so it's alway a surprise to find something just dead but not worked over like that.