| While camping this weekend we were just hanging out enjoying the birds when something flashed by us. When I looked I noticed a dead chipmunk on the ground, which hadn’t been there a minute before. Another flash, and I now see it; a long-tailed weasel.
She ran back around, after checking us out carefully, grabbed the chipmunk and disappeared. Five minutes later she flashed by again (sans chipmunk), ran into the bushes and came back with a second dead chipmunk. By this I assumed she was a female, hunting for her babies.
The biggest surprise was how small she was – maybe 18 inches tail-to-nose. The chipmunk probably massed almost as much as she did.
It was very cool, though, and a good reason to just sit quietly and enjoy the birds.