mystery guest on the lottie

Started by ina, November 19, 2003, 20:55:01

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ina

November 19, 2003, 20:55:01 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
Today at the lottie. A biggish hole going under the shed, must be a rat but..... a bit too big for that. Later I walked around the flower part and in the middle of the woodchip path was a bump with a big circle of scratching around the pile of chips. When I had a closer look to see what it could be I noticed something like thin, yellowish french bean looking things. No, not beans............. toes! Long yellow toes. Cripes, they were the toes of a water fowl I don't know the English name for it. They are black with a white spot on the face and they have enormous feet. Something burried it and I don't think rats do that.

Last spring, my partner Clint saw an ermine moving her babies to a different spot in the lottie complex, making many trips back and forth. I wish I was there at the time, would have loved to have seen it. I wonder if our mystery guest could be an ermine. I guess they don't do any harm to the garden so we'll just leave it.

ina

November 19, 2003, 20:55:01 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400

Palustris

#1
November 19, 2003, 21:16:29 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
The bird is possibly a coot. All black feathers with a white patch on the head?. Stoats are not that big, to carry off and bury a bird like that. Do you have foxes in your area? They certainly dig in under sheds in Britain and bury food for later.
Gardening is the great leveller.

ina

#2
November 19, 2003, 21:21:55 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
No, no foxes here. Weasel?

MagpieDi

#3
November 19, 2003, 23:45:15 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
Ina....perhaps it's BeerBelly's idea of a practical joke!!!  ;D  ;D
Gardening on a wing and a prayer!!

Beer_Belly

#4
November 20, 2003, 11:08:27 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
Not guilty !

How can you tell the difference between a stoat and a weasel ?


A Weasel is weasily recognised but a stoat is stoatally different ! I Thaaaankyou !


(Actually if I remember correctly a stoat has a black tipped tail and a weasel doesn't - am I right ?)

good_life_girl

#5
November 20, 2003, 15:58:29 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
Tasteless as it may be, when you said about long yellow toes, it made me think of that awful thing in the Lord of the Rings - Grollum or whatever it's called!

I just get rustlings in the bushes on my lottie, which I presume are rodent-based - I'm ignoring them as I ahve a bit of a fear of them and if I can't see them then they aren't there!

ina

#6
November 21, 2003, 19:46:51 Last Edit: January 01, 1970, 01:00:00 by 1077926400
Yes Eric, it is a dead coot. Funny thing, in Dutch it's koet which is pronounced exactly the same.

BB, I really like that rhymey thing, very clever.
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