Out My Window Spring 2002

Out my window, the early morning fog is slowly lifting. It looks like the beginning of an excellent Saturday morning. There are, as usual, two pairs of nesting swans on the lake. The pair from the southwest end of the lake is huddled around five newly hatched balls of gray fluff. The cygnets bob up and down like so many corks as they get their introduction to Hiland Lake. The swans on our lake are Mute Swans and have their origins in a group of swans that were imported from Europe in the 1920’s to decorate a pond on an estate in the western part of the state. Regarded by some as a “nuisance” species because they are not native to the area, they are still beautiful and they eat only aquatic plants and insects. If the cygnets make it through the first forty or so days of live, escaping the jaws of turtle, pike and other predators they will achieve a wing span of 7 to 8 feet by the end of summer.

While walking the trail to Pickerel Lake last winter, I caught a flash of something sleek, brown and furry with a bushy tail, moving hyperactively as it checked under rocks, inside logs and along the water’s edge for its next meal. That something turned out to be Mustela vison also known as the American Mink. Since then, I have seen two more mink, one of them last summer in the bay between Oakridge and Centerline. Prior to these sightings, I had never before seen a mink, despite thousands of hours spent skiing through swamps and paddling around the lakes. I don’t know if mink are making a comeback in the area or if they are just hard to spot.

Mustela vison is a member of the weasel family, belongs to the order Carnivora and likes some of the same foods that we human carnivores enjoy, such as duck, muskrat, rabbit, and fish. Mustela vison is also fond of crayfish, mice, shrews and frogs.

Our little furry friend has few natural predators, occasionally a coyote, bobcat or great horned owl will make a meal out of a mink. Minks have a soft luxurious dark brown coat with oily guard hairs that repel water. As with many things in life, this is both good and bad. While the mink looks quite stunning in its fur coat that same coat causes man to be the primary predator of the mink in order to acquire that fine fur coat.

Mink mate during the winter and the young are born in late spring with litter sizes usually ranging between 1 to 8 babies which stay with the mother through the summer until fall, when they leave to establish their own territories. If you are out around dawn or dusk, watch for Mustela vison.

Boating season is upon us. By the time that you read this all of the no-wake buoys should be in place. On a lake as small as ours, courtesy is the watchword. Please watch for swimmers, paddlers and anglers. Larry Broat