This mink has lived near us for several years. It has a range that extends completely around our bay. It is occasionally seen in the summer months as it runs busily along the shoreline but it is more frequently seen in the winter months. For the past three weeks, it has been very busy building a cache of freshly caught (and soon to be frozen) fish in an old cedar stump on our shoreline. The mink will swim out to the big rock, rest for a few minutes, and then go out another fifty feet or so to catch a fish. It will then bring the fish back to the rock where it rests for a few minutes before swimming into shore. Once on shore, it then stores the fish underneath the stump roots – where the space is high and dry and leaf-lined. I don’t know how many fish it has stored in front of our home, but I do know there’s enough to provide many meals throughout the winter. This cache is one of several around the shoreline. Two years ago, it built a cache in the hollow spaces of our dock! Thankfully the odour didn’t last too far into the summer season.
And two winters ago, we had our fish hut off second point. Our little friend frequented the location, not only opening the hatch in the floor, but actually using our hole in the ice to dive down and catch fish. He actually caught more fish than we did !
Here is a large rock bass just caught and being taken into the cache..
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