Caught in the act!

A lovely, warm day and a gorgeous drive over to the Coromandel.  Lots of traffic and a few crazies already evident so plenty of pulling over to let people pass.

I saw information about an animal and bird farm camp ground a little before Whitianga and decided to drop in for a look.  Wow!  Such a gem of a place to stay that I decided to do just that.  Lots of animals and birds, many of which were free-roaming.  The camp facilities were excellent too and with the sun shining late into the evening, it was a beautiful, relaxing place to stay.  

I took a walk along one of the bush paths - home of 'the Grotts' - and was enjoying the 'entertainment' that had been carefully placed by the owners along the way for the entertainment of children, when I noticed a scuffling further along the path.  I stopped and watched.........an egg rolled down the embankment followed by a stoat!  The egg was nudged across the path, down the next embankment then into the stream below where the stoat seemed to 'play' with it. Too good an opportunity to miss, I turned around, went back to the van, grabbed the camera and returned to the same spot.  

I waited.........

About a minute later, more scuffling in the embankment then, just as previously, out rolled an egg.  This chap quickly followed, nudging the egg around, seemingly trying to 'crash' it into a rock.  For two minutes I watched as he chased and tried to break the egg, oblivious to me.  He didn't break it, then headed back up the bank, I assumed, to get another egg.

At this point I decided I should go and see the camp/farm operator to let him know there was a stoat stealing some of his birds eggs.  As he wasn't in the office, I just left him a note.

Later on in the evening he came over to my van we had a discussion about what I'd seen.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if, being an animal farm, he might have been content to live and let live.  Not so!  He was most certainly not happy to be having his birds eggs stolen and said he would put a trap out.

Unwelcome rodent he may be, but I still can only see the cuteness of the wee guy!