Winnipesaukee Forum - Stalked by a mink!

Almost every year, we’ve been delighted to catch an occasional sighting of a little mink – maybe a foot long – scurrying along the shoreline. Sure enough, he put in a quick appearance a couple of weeks ago, and we’ve seen him a couple of times since.

Today, my wife and I were spending a nice afternoon sitting on our dock, sunning, reading, and leading the good life. Then something slightly startled my wife. It was the mink who had peeked out from behind a flower box on the dock. Cool!

A little later on, something caught my attention. It was the mink again, on the dock about 3 feet away, looking directly at me with his beady little eyes. As he galoomphed off, I was amazed by his curiosity. The little critter had a daring streak!

Over the next half hour, I spotted him crossing and recrossing the path up to our house, about 10 feet away from the dock. We had never seen him so often in such a short time!

A bit later I headed up to the house for some refreshments. A short way up the path, I heard a chirping sound, so turned around to look. It was the mink, dead center in the path and watching me intently. I turned back around and continued up the path. So did the mink, keeping several feet behind me. I stopped and faced him, which didn’t faze him in the least. So I resumed walking. So did he.

Finally, it dawned on me that he probably wasn’t trying to be my friend, so I decided that a different approach was in order. I faced him, yelled, and started advancing towards him. This finally sent him skittering back down the path and under the dock, chirping the whole way.

Now, we appreciate the wildlife we encounter here in the wilds of Lake W. But we’ve never had an experience quite like this (well, there was the time that a bear pooped on our dock, but we weren’t around for that). So I decided to do a little Googling. I learned a couple of things.

First, mink will eat almost anything…birds, chippies, frogs, snakes, mussels…you name it. They’re daring and voracious hunters. And sometimes they will store leftovers in their dens. Hmmm…maybe this explains the distinctive odor of decaying animal we’ve detected recently. And the somewhat fishy smell on the dock on still days. And the slowly increasing pile of mussel shells in the water near the dock.

Second, it’s not unheard of for them to get feisty with people: http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthrea...trailless-peak

So we’re not sure how this story ends. Maybe he’s a male being territorial. Maybe "he" is a "she" protecting her nearby den (fur lined - very posh!). To paraphrase the late Rodney King, we’d just like to find a way for us all to get along. We’ll see.