A ghostly Squirrel & a muggle Polecat!

Many thanks to Dennis for these photos of an albino Grey Squirrel that is running around in Station Road, Ampthill, at the moment.


I love the photo which shows the contrast with the accompanying Grey Squirrel and Blackbird!

On Friday the last episode of the Harry Potter franchise is released. Will Voldemort and his 'pure bloods' triumph over those inferior wizards with muggle ancestry? I found this Polecat earlier today close to the Stewartby turn, and I'm not sure whether it's a pure-blood Polecat or a muggle Polecat-Ferret! There seems to be a few too many pair hairs on the facial pelage, and I need someone more skilled than myself to have a look.

During the Vincent Trust’s Polecat Survey of England, Scotland & Wales (2004-2006) road traffic casualties comprised the majority of the 1,273 records and, of those, 86.2% were verified as true Polecats. Here in Bedfordshire the majority of our records follow this trend. I’m going to let Richard, our County Mammal Recorder, make the call on this one! You can contrast some of the features on the Vincent Wildlife Trust’s downloadable resource here.

Update.
Having looked at the side profile, it was reckoned that the pale appearance may well be down to the Polecat beginning to come into its winter coat, even at this early stage. The front profile above, with the brown nasal mark extending right to the nose suggests that this is, indeed, a pure blood and not a muggle!