Feb 28 2010
Ermine
Imagine my surprise this morning when I glanced out the kitchen window and saw this little guy. It was making itself at home near the area where I feed birds. It seemed to be interested in the nearby Steller’s Jay and juncos but never made a pass at any of them while I was watching. The white coat of the ermine is the winter dress for weasels. Weasels sometime raid my bluebird boxes during nesting season, kill and eat adult birds, nestlings and eggs. “All around the chicken coop the monkey chased the weasel.”
Awesome picture! We have long-tailed weasels around my neighborhood that I have seen in summer with their brown fur and strikingly yellow underbelly, but I’ve always wanted to see one dressed in white.