Rob Scrivens and his two volunteers start to assemble the cage which is to be the polecats' temporary home.
Fran, Lorena and the volunteers wait for the polecats to emerge from their box into the cage.
In the transport cage, but testing the scent of the strange new surroundings.
Out into the spacious new cage, examining the photographer closely!
Thorough exploration of their new home.
Unlike the foxes, the polecats seemed happy with their accomodation, but set about improving it by digging short tunnels within the cage.
By 12th October, the polecats had still not dug their way out, so we released them. Here, Bill raises the cage to let them out.
Out into the wide world ..
The three polecats were soon all out of the cage, exploring the neighbourhood.
Threat posture towards the camera.
The cage had been set up next to an ancient and drooping cherry tree. One of the polecats disappeared into a hole at its base, and after rummaging around, reappeared with a property-owning look on its face!
Next day two of the polecats were still resident in the cherry tree, and immediately appeared when we arrived with food and banged on the trunk.
The cherry tree was hollow for a long way up, and the polecats used a crack in the trunk well above eye level to check out visitors.
They came out and clambered up the tree (drooping nearly to the horizontal) in order to drink water from pools of rainwater further up the trunk.
After a while, only one of the polecats were still resident in the cherry tree, and this was one of the last batch of photos, taken on 30th October.