[Old Shep]

We have something living / or has lived in the garden shed.  We put some hay bales in the shed last spring and they've been there ever since. On moving them this week we have found poo which looks a bit like ferret poo - couple of inches long, and slug like - not pellets.  There were feathers around where a bird had been eaten, and feathers made into a nest in between the lower bales - a space which a small cat could fit in.  There is a hole at the back of the shed where the animal could get in and out.  The dogs are very interested in and under the shed.  We have just moved into the house after 18 months of rebuilding the house, so whatever it is could well have cleared off now the dogs are here.  A dry stone waller working on the garden wall last year said he saw a black animal run across the lawn - a lot bigger than a squirrel but not as big as a fox.


We are fairly high up on the Yorks/Lancs border, surrounded by fields, no woodland to speak of, 1/4 mile from the nearest stream.


Any ideas?

[regen]

sounds like a polecat or polecat /ferret but if itwas really black rather than dark brown then the mink is possible.

Regen

[SallyintNorth]

If you have any poultry or waterfowl and they're still alive, it wasn't mink

[harmony]

Bigger than a squirrel but not as big as a fox. Quite a range there. Our dogs have holed up mink under the shed and in the wall. If they feel threatened or cornered they give off a noxious smell. One of our terriers once killed one in his kennel. You could smell it well before you got there.


They didn't kill all our poultry.

[Old Shep]

Thanks everyone!  We don't have any hens but there are wild ducks in the meadow (well the wetland which used to be a meadow!).  Apparently 40 years ago there was a mink farm in the village, so it is conceivable that there may be a small wild population still around.  My son who used to have ferrets confirms the poo is very similar, even in a tidy little pile in the corner of the shed.  So I'm going with either mink or polecat.