Stoat kills rabbit

The highlight of a day’s walking in the Rhinogydd is usually getting to a summit, enjoying a fine view or reaching the end with a sense of achievement. But this weekend’s excitement was complete before my bootlaces were tied.

While kneeling to put on my boots, by the farm at the far end of Cwm Nantcol, I heard a small scream and twenty metres away was a stoat with its teeth in the neck of a struggling rabbit.  I stumbled forward with my camera and the stoat retreated. Rising up on its hind legs, as if to say don’t you dare touch my rabbit, the stoat took refuge in a nearby stone wall.

A few seconds later, out it came towards the rabbit, but my dog barked and off it ran back into the wall. If I’d been on my own I would have hung around to see what happened next but my fellow walkers were keen to get going.

Within a minute of setting off, on a slate slab across a stream, was a fresh otter spraint. Surely this walk was going to be a great safari.