A Morning with Stoats

Apologies for the lack of recent posts, it has been a busy time for me with my new business. Also I wanted to have a short break from the blog to recharge my batteries. As the blog has now passed its 10th anniversary, I figured a short break was deserved. 

For this post I want to wind you back to the summer and a short morning session when I tried to photograph some stoats. It had been four years since I last tried to photograph these mini predators and a session with them was long overdue. I love photographing stoats but they are very tricky to photograph, partly due to the fact that they move so quickly and rarely pause which is further compounded by the rocky terrain where I photograph them. 

It's  really a case of now you see a stoat and an instant later you don't as it disappears behind a boulder. A real game of hide and seek between the stoats and photographer.

For photographing the stoats you have a very small window of opportunity of around 2 to 3 weeks, as the easiest time is generally when the young are just fully grown and about to disperse away from the adults. At these times the adults will leave the young playing in a group while they go off hunting. However, trying to predict exactly when that 'photography window' will occur is difficult to predict with certainty and the vagaries of the British climate can have a direct impact on the optimum time to visit. Unfortunately not only was my visit this year mis-timed, but it also coincided with a morning of poor light and frequent heavy showers.  Ideally you need good light and fast shutter speeds are normally the order of the day with these very fast animals. This particular morning was going to need high ISO and a wide open lens to try and make the most of the poor light available. The sun only made a brief and very temporary appearance.

It took me about an hour of searching to find the stoats and when I found them it was two adults actively hunting. During the morning I only caught one brief glimpse of one of the kits and they stayed underground in one of the temporary dens throughout the session.  The adults were moving fast and covering a lot of ground in their search for prey along the foreshore. They certainly kept me busy as I tried to get ahead of them and let them come to and past me as they rapidly weaved their way through the large boulders.

It was a slight frustrating morning as I would get a glimpse of a stoat and it would then disappear behind a rock just as I manage to get the camera trained on it. Every photograph was hard won and I was pleased to get a few.  Such a  real pleasure to be in the company of these beautiful animals for about an hour and watch them go about their lives. 

Eventually the two adult stoats went to ground as the weather deteriorated and I decided to bring the session to a close. Hopefully I can catch up with them again next summer with an improvement in my timing and the light.  

Return to Stoats

Long-term readers of this blog may recall the photography session I had last summer with a family of Stoats on the edge of an estuary. I know that the Stoats have been present in this particular area for a number of years and so decided a return visit was called for this summer to see if I could repeat what had been such a memorable encounter. I have thought about that day a great deal in the intervening period, as it had been such a wonderful experience to be in prolonged close proximity to these amazing animals.

With wildlife photography much of the success is down to timing, and of cause a certain element of luck, as for many species there is a small window of opportunity when the chance of getting photographs are highest.  Over my years of photography I have built up a mental calender of where the best opportunities may lie at different times of year. However, that never guarantees success especially with the impact that the vagaries of the UK climate in recent years and the influence it appears to be having on food availability, breeding cycles and migrations. Having said that most wildlife tends to stick to fairly rigid patterns of timing, give or take a few weeks, that has be honed by thousands of millennia of evolution.  This is why rapid climate change may prove to be devastating to many species as it occurs over a much short timescales than the animals are able to adapt.

Typically given the UK summer this year, the day I had chosen was overcast with intermittent rain and not ideally light for photographing these hyperactive mini predators. I arrived at first light and started my search. Three fruitless hours later and I was starting to think the session was going to be a non-event, when in my peripheral vision I spotted some movement along the rocks at the edge of the estuary. At first I dismissed this as probably being a bird but went to investigate to find a young stoat peering out of the boulders. The search was over and the hard task of photographing stoats amongst piles of rocks began. As you can see from the photographs some of the stoats had a heavy burden of ticks in their ears.

One of the adults appeared and disappeared quickly along the beach leaving the seven nearly fully grown young at the temporary den. Over the next 90 minutes I was in for a real treat as several young would appear at once to explore their surroundings, giving a reasonable amount of photo opportunities at close range. This included some play fighting to hone their future hunting skills on the estuary mud and seaweed and a fixation with a reinforcing bar sticking out of the rocks which provided them with some climbing practice.

As with the year before it was such a pleasure being in close proximity to the group who were oblivious to my presence, as I sat very quietly and still close-by. Such an encounter is a real privilege as the most many see of a Stoat is a blur of fur running across the road or disappearing into the undergrowth. 

After a 90 minute absence I saw at distance a paler coloured adult running very quickly across the boulders, back towards the young, and carrying some prey. The course of the speeding adult took it right past where I was sat but I still only managed one photograph that I was happy with. As I said before photographing stoats is not easy. At first I though the prey was a young moorhen but looking at the images when I got home I think it is a young Wood Pigeon that was on the 'breakfast menu'.

The adult dragged the pigeon under the boulders into the temporary den and was quickly followed by the disappearance of all the young. I knew that I was now in for a wait and lull in activity as the meal was eaten and probably followed by a sleep. A further 90 minutes past before the first youngster's head appeared out of the boulders.

The lone adult then decided it was time to move the family on to another temporary den. A large group of stoats on the move is fascinating and like watching fluid fur flowing over the rocks. I was happy with the photographs from the morning and left the stoats to the rest of the day in the rapidly deteriorating weather and light. 

I will definitely be returning again next year to try and photograph the Stoats. It is already a fixture in the mental diary. Hopefully I will be able to find them and spend some time amongst them once again as it has, in my opinion, to be up there near the top with the most memorable wildlife experiences that the UK has to offer.

Stoats - Following the Hunt

At the end of the last post we had just left the Stoat family gradually emerging from the rocks after what I assume was a rest after their early morning vole feeding spree. It took a few minutes for the whole family to appear above ground and the general milling around was accompanied by some stretching and 'yawning'.

Then the whole pack took off at speed in search of more food. The group moved as one and had an almost fluid appearance as they moved across the rocks whilst rapidly searching in gaps between boulders for any signs of prey.

I must admit it was difficult to keep up with them (must be getting old :)) and the rate the hunting party covered ground was impressive. They slowed a little as they crossed a small stream. This gave me the opportunity to get well in front and positioned in the hope they would keep heading in the same direction.

Luck was definitely on my side that morning as the Stoat pack crossed the stream once more and headed straight up the bank and towards where I was sitting. Just before they reached me one of the adults stumbled across some prey and instantly reappeared carrying a vole which no doubt had come to a very swift end by these superbly adapted predators.

The vole was dropped on a large rock in front of me, which I assume was the adult trying to get the nearly fully grown young to become more independent.

It was a wonderful experience to observe while the adults continued their hunting around me, seemingly oblivious to my presence and appearing with captured voles from a nest they had located.

The young Stoats still seemed a bit unsure about what they should do and eventually one of the adults picked up the vole and carried it over to them. Obviously they still had some learning ahead of them.

One of the adults decided to then eat eat a vole in front of me, which was undertaken as with all activities in Stoat world, at a very fast pace. This produced some fairly gruesome photographs with the one below being one of the less graphic ones that ended up on my memory card.

Having fed, the Stoats then went to ground once more, leaving the solitary adult on guard duty before that too disappeared.

I decided that as they had just fed so well and the day was progressing, that they would probably now have an extended sleep. So having been privileged to witness such an extended insight in to the world of the Stoat family that morning, it seemed an appropriate time to finish the session and one very happy photographer set off on his journey home.

Stoats - The First Encounter

I thought it time to move away from the bird photographs for a couple of posts to tell you about a wonderful wildlife encounter and probably one of my most memorable yet in the UK. I must admit I was filled with doubt on that grey morning that I headed out at first light to try and take some photographs of the elusive Stoat and was under no illusion that the task would be easy. I had some good information on a site where a family had been seen reasonably regularly but even if I managed to find them I expected that would only be the start of difficulties as they were going to be a tricky subject to photograph due to their small size and speed. Not that I had any experience with them as all I have seen in the past had been a fleeting glimpse as one has run across the road or rapidly disappeared into vegetation.

My confidence was further dented when the was no sign of them in the expected area, and decided to widen my search. Now some of my friends say I am lucky when it comes to wildlife photography and of course there is always a element of this but I do also work very hard at it and try and maximise any chance of success. Fortune was certainly with me that day as suddenly before me was not one but six Stoats running around.

I watched them for a while, decided which direction they were heading and then settled down at a distance in the hope that they would come to me. The sit, become part of the landscape and wait for them to come to you is often the best approach for a close wildlife encounter.

It difficult to convey with a photograph the speed and agility of these mini predators and they are certainly a serious challenge to both camera and photographer.

A flying Stoat

One of the adults found a vole nest and efficiently and systematically came out with several voles which were taken to feed the nearly fully grown kits amongst the rocks. The family of Stoats disappeared then for about 40 minutes with just one staying in view, apparently on 'look out' duty.

This lone adult went on a long wander before returning to the family and also disappeared in to the rocks.

I sat and waited and after about 10 minutes and then the family group started to emerge, it appeared it was time for another hunting foray.

This was the start of an amazing hour with the stoat family but that will have to wait now until the next post.