American Mink (Vison d'Amérique) in Toronto

4 July 2016

     There is an impending postal strike in Canada and Miriam had a sale on her ETSY site for a woman in Toronto, who said the item was for her ninety-three year old mother's birthday, and she was concerned that it would not reach her by mail. Give the circumstances we decided that we would hand-deliver it and make use of our time in the city to check out the waterfront.

     The most entertaining part of our day was to observe, at close range, a family of American Mink Mustela vison at Colonel Samuel Smith Park.

Adult female

     We were both surprised and delighted to see these creatures for they are primarily nocturnal, with their main activity taking place around dawn and dusk. This was the middle of the day in bright sunshine.

     As far as we could tell there were three kits, although it is hard to be sure, as they darted in and out of rocky cover and took to the water, disappearing from view and emerging beyond our vision.

     The pelage of the young animals is considerably lighter in colour than the adults.

     Although playful as kits, adult mink are bold, ferocious and efficient predators. These youngsters were already displaying their hunting prowess in the water, where they are excellent swimmers.

     At this stage of their lives they are catching mainly freshwater crabs and fish, but as they age they will turn their attention to small mammals, voles, mice, and muskrats, even cottontail rabbits.

     These Double-crested Cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus were in no danger from the mink.

     We came home via Oakville so that we could check the nests of the Red-necked Grebes Podiceps grisegena. The last time we had seen them was in March when nest-building had not yet begun.

     Both tires placed strategically for the use of the birds had active nests and the adults were busy incubating their eggs.

     As may be seen in the pictures below it is unfortunate that the birds do not hesitate to add plastic waste to their nests, such material seemingly being as acceptable as vegetation. It is even more unfortunate that we continue to pollute the world with this stuff.

     The deck at the side of our house was getting a little rickety (after all it was about twenty years old) so we replaced it last week, and we are well pleased with the results. 

     It was good to sit outside and have a glass of wine together before dinner. Gee, I might even do the same thing again tonight!