A Stoat at Lemsford Springs

12th August 2025

Another hot day so need a local reserve with hides and the place that ticks all these boxes is Lemsford Springs. Nothing on view when I arrived but there had been two Green Sandpipers and a Kingfisher briefly so time to just settle down and wait.

Most of the action was provided by a family of Grey Wagtails, but only the adults were cooperative and fed on the sleepers in front of the hide.

The female above is ringed. Below is the male.

Then something brown was seen bobbing around in the watercress further upstream to the right of the hide. The long chestnut body and the black tip to the tail soon identified it as a Stoat. It was quite close to some Moorhens and its jumping up and down and rolling over antics are supposed to mesmorise the Moorhens into a false sense of security.

Here are some shots of some quieter moments.

Whether it was because of the mesmorising or not, the Moorhens seemed unduly trusting of this predator and were happy to stand just a few feet away, obviously believing their take off speed was faster than his sprint across water.

Here is the Stoat trying to decide which one was best.

Well that was an unexpected bonus and my first Stoat at Lemsford.

Also, always nice to have a chat with my good mate Big Kev and to meet Beau Bassich.

It was also a bit of a surprise on my way out to bump into Chris Gibson for the first time in five years. We first met on the 8th August 2020 when we were watching a Redstart at Stanstead Innings. Good to see you Chris and look forward to seeing in another five years.