On Christmas morning, while our dinner was cooking in the oven, we walked out over the local farmland and spotted this stoat, about 100 metres away, racing across the snowy pastures. It soon became clear that ...
.. it was out hunting its Christmas dinner - as the rabbit that it had spotted broke cover. The panic-stricken prey raced towards us, with a head-start of about 30 metres on the the stoat ...
... but stoats are light, fast movers over snow, bounding across the frozen surface in a series of leaps ... and they are relentless in the chase.
As the rabbit approached us its lead was reduced to just a couple of metres and the stoat was almost close enough to pounce.
If you have a sensitive disposition, you may want to surf the web elsewhere at this point.....
The heavy rabbit's fate was sealed when it plunged into the deeper snow drift that had piled up in the lee of the hedge......
... allowing the stoat to get close enough to make the fatal leap.
After a short struggle the stoat stood over the apparently lifeless body of its victim ...
... and its first thought was to have a good look around, to make sure that nothing was going to take its dinner away.
Then it spotted us....
... and instead of running away it wriggled through the snow towards us.....
.... right up to the fence, where it paused to have a good look at us. It's hard to believe that such a cute face belongs to such a deadly hunter.
What happened next was an even bigger surprise, because it hadn't killed the rabbit .... which began to crawl away...
... but, quick as a flash, the stoat turned, raced after it and leapt onto its prey again.
There was a short struggle and this time there was no mistake....
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