THE weasel on the motorway has to be one of the weirdest entries this week.

Jeff Higgs, who sent us the picture, said it was taken at a traffic monitoring site on the M40 near junction 11 for Banbury.

As an added detail he revealed: "He/ she had built her nest under the cabinet I was working on."

In the week when we asked for photos of 'all creatures great and small', it is particularly apt: the weasel is the UK's smallest carnivore.

Although not considered rare, these beautiful mammals' habitat is declining – and they are certainly not normally found on motorways.

Another cracking entry in the 'small' category is Ian Marriott's miniscule spider snacking on an even smaller greenfly.

Paul Wakelin managed to do both at once with this great picture of what he says was a grey crowned crane at Cotswold Wildlife Park and its chick.

Action shot of the week might go to Ian White: this picture of a kingfisher swooping down on Oxford Canal to grab a morsel is the kind of shot photographers dream of.

But hot on his heels is Duncan Becker.

He messaged us: "Please could I enter this photo into this week's competition?

"It is something I've wanted to photograph for years but is rare to see, and harder to photograph.

"It is of hares 'boxing', part of their annual mating ritual.

"I took it from the car, parked by the road just north of Woodstock."

With pleasure, Duncan.

The smaller side of the scale certainly does get a good outing this week, with a swarm of beautifully-coloured butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies landing in our inbox.

Even when James Fallows sent in this shot of what was presumably a normal-sized peacock, he's zoomed in on its magnificently adorned head so you don't get its full scale.

There are plenty more beautiful pictures on our Facebook group. If you haven't already signed up, just search for 'Oxford Mail Camera Club' and ask to join.

Alternatively you can always email us your pictures – picturedesk@nqo.com.

We always love to know a little bit about your pictures: what we're looking at, when and where it was taken, and where you live yourself.

For next week's challenge, we've decided to go in the complete opposite direction to this week and our theme is 'technology'.

Interpret it how you will, but have a think about it while you're at work this week or just out and about – there might be more photos waiting to be snapped than you realise.

Have fun.