Crafty Mink

The photo of the mink that I had wished for had already eluded me. I'd seen the mink working its way through the undergrowth and then over fallen branches, but it was moving too fast and in the wrong direction. I was still hopeful of some photos of the belted kingfishers though, but I had to choose a different tree stump this time. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get close enough for any photos showing feather detail, but perhaps using faster shutter speeds, I'd be lucky enough to capture some distant photos of the kingfishers in flight. 

I needed a position that would enable me to stay hidden in the area that the kingfishers were fishing, and I'd found the perfect location. Another grassy, dead tree stump of an island that could only be reached by wading through the swampy water, which was littered with hidden slippery branches.

One female belted kingfisher was working her way around the Wetlands. She was flying from branch to branch. I guess also a little like myself, looking for the perfect location to capture her prey.

She paused occasionally.

Hovered in mid-flight as she locked onto a possible target.


And then just as swiftly changed her mind.

I was distracted a few times by geese on their approach flight into the Wetlands, honking to declare their arrival to the other geese.

And then my attention swung back to the kingfisher. She was predominantly spending her time observing from a good vantage point.

And then, when she saw an opportunity, she'd pin her wings back and dive headfirst into the fray.

Sometimes through a seemingly impossibly crisscross of branches.

I had hoped for a photo of her with a catch, and I was not to be disappointed as she dived successfully on this attempt.

A small snack, but enough to keep her going until the next opportunity presented itself.


I was again very happy with my morning. Even though I had missed out on photos of the mink, the female kingfisher had already made me forget that loss.

A distraction from my phone ringing was reason enough to part company with the female belted kingfisher.

I turned away from the tree stump that I'd been hiding behind and reached for my phone, only to see the mink that had escaped my camera earlier just to my right, on the other side of the stump. It bounded away over the fallen branches, and my second chance also disappeared with it. 

I answered my phone and agreed with the caller that it was time that I made my way back. I started to carefully wade through the shallows and then stopped. The mink had returned. It hadn't been scared away by my movement or my phone, it was simply following its route, eagerly searching for food.


The mink slipped into the water and swam closer.


Tirelessly searching every nook and cranny.

Mink are semi-aquatic and remarkably good swimmers with their partially webbed toes. The webbing is shown in the next image.


I had been visualizing for some time now the images that I would like of the mink.

The mink stopped and looked directly at me just as I'd imagined, before continuing on its way.


I was standing up to the top of my boots in muddy water, but I had no complaints at all, I'd had a wonderful morning.

Copyright © scottswildencounters.blogspot.com 2020 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.

Location: Borden Wetlands, Kitchener, ON N2E, Canada

Comments

  1. Harriette5 November 2020 at 13:39

    Since I grew up on a mink farm, your pictures of a healthy wild mink reminded me of my experiences in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott Atkinson8 November 2020 at 02:38

    A relative also had a mink farm where I grew up in the UK. I never saw the mink at the farm as I was young then, but long after the farm closed, I did catch the odd fleeting glimpse of mink that had escaped. I'd see them along the riverbanks where I used to go birdwatching.

    I had no idea they were such good swimmers. My next post will show some distant photos of the mink with a fish!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Sign of Warmer Weather

Image
The months of January and February have been bitterly cold in Kitchener. The last areas of free-running water were confined to the faster-moving water flowing from the Wetlands. Shallow areas that attracted song sparrows to plodge in the small trickling streams as they searched for fallen seeds. And then came the cold!  With the ground completely covered in snow and the water frozen song sparrows were left to feed on what seeds they could find on the remaining flowering stems of plants that had long withered away. American tree sparrows, with their rusty crest and bicolored bill, were also on the search for seeds. They were seen briefly, flitting from branch to branch. Redpolls appeared utterly oblivious to the freezing conditions. A female redpoll is pictured below feeding on the seeds of a goldenrod plant. When the goldenrod seeds were exhausted, the redpoll's main food source was still in good supply. The seeds of Alder trees are available only to those with a specific skillset....
Read more

A Breezy start to 2022

Image
Winter has come and almost gone in no time at all. I can easily recount how many times I've endured the cold by traversing the frozen expanse of the Wetlands. An invitation to the inevitable frozen fingers that come from hovering over the shutter for just too long, holding out for that perfect photo of a black-capped chickadee on a fluffy cattail. Or one of the many white-chested nuthatches, creeping, scouring every inch of bark they could find. I resigned myself (for the most part) to birdwatching from the comfort and warmth of our home, where the bitter frozen fruit of one of our trees proved popular with a group of cedar waxwings. It was quite surprising to watch them swallow the frozen berries whole! A cast-iron frying pan acted as a watering hole for many of our neighbourhood birds when the temperature rose above zero, and it attracted a close relative of the white-breasted nuthatch. One that I tried and failed to photograph in the fall of last year, but a return of the red-br...
Read more

Hooded Mergansers

Image
How many hooded mergansers can you fit on a tree stump? It's, I'm sure, a question that has puzzled us all at some point. The answer is, of course, three. Three hooded mergansers can comfortably fit on a dead tree stump. The real question is, why on earth are ducks so interested in dead tree stumps? Hooded mergansers are fish eaters, after all. Their long serrated bill has a sharp hook at the end.  That bill has evolved with the need to grasp hold of fish who would prefer not to be captured.  Mergansers are just as adept at swimming under the water as they are flying through the air. And it was their repetitive flying that drew my attention to their fascination with trees. For no apparent reason, the mergansers, male and female, would take off, performing laps around the wetlands.  They would circle round and round. Then, curiously, the female would disappear among the stands of trees on the far side of the water. That presented me with lots of opportunities for photos of...
Read more