I was driving out of the village, totalling along in the old Land Rover and trying not to listen to another new rattle. Approaching the top of the hill, a small animal suddenly shot across the road in front of me, with its legs going like the clappers. It was either a weasel or a stoat and the best way to tell them apart is by the black tip on a stoat’s tail. The weasel is also a fair bit smaller than the stoat. I couldn’t see the tail tip easily as I was looking into the sun but from the size I was pretty sure it was a weasel, especially as it was scuttling along rather than having the bounding gait of the stoat.

Weasels tend get bad press, especially in the Wind in the Willows, what with taking over Toad Hall as they did, but they are fascinating creatures. They are related to stoats, mink and ermine, and more distantly otters and badgers, and their bodies don’t store fat. Gee, how nice must that be. Therefore, they eat over half their body weight daily, so are voracious feeders - I think our black Labrador might be a relative!

They have a wide diet of rats, mice, voles and pretty much anything else, birds eggs included. Our species in the UK is technically known as the least weasel but the group as a whole are widely spread over the globe. There are numerous legends and myths, including suggestions that weasels hold funerals to bury their dead, but most are associated with our interpretation of weasels being untrustworthy or dishonest.

I really like them, firstly as it shows there is a good supply of food and therefore the ecosystem is in good order, but I do admire their tenacity and work ethic - they get on with the tough job of making a living, which we all need a bit of!

• Fred Knobbit is a nature blogger. He grew up in the Pennines in Lancashire on the edge of an industrial town but is now safely in Cornwall. You can read his archive at www.bodminblogger.com