Rodney Nicholson saw this American Mink on August 1, 2016, in Chinook Winds Park in Airdrie. It was hunting for Richardson’s Ground Squirrels.
Rodney Nicholson saw this American Mink on August 1, 2016, in Chinook Winds Park in Airdrie. It was hunting for Richardson’s Ground Squirrels.
I have seen them, sometimes as many as three in a long stretch along Nose Creek, thru out the fall and winter. Recently seen on Nose Creek by the last lagoon north of Yankee Valley Blvd. in open water where the creek spills over the rocks between the two lagoons. Over the time since I first spotted them I have seen red and dark black mink. The red mink was quite a bit larger than any of the blacks.You can see their tracks in the ice along the creek banks. I have also seen them at Nose Creek park behind the Catholic Church and even on the foot bridges in same area.
OK. So those little jet-black furry things are mink too? I have seen them running around on the ice at the edge of several ponds. But I estimate the length of the black ones to be only 60% the length of the red ones (which have a little white spot under their chin). I had wondered what the little black ones were.
Mink can be dark reddish-brown to black. There shouldn’t be a consistent size difference for different colours of coat though.
According to Wikipedia: “Home ranges are typically 1–6 kilometres (0.62–3.73 miles) long, with male territories being larger than those of females.” Since seeing the mink, I have seen no ground squirrels in the area, where I used to see them almost every day.
JFI: Someone tells me he saw three mink in Chinook Winds Park, Airdrie the same day I did. Like the one I observed, none of them appeared to be afraid of humans, he said.
Not sure how far they roam but we’ve seen one, maybe the same one (?) in the creek area by Hanson Ranch, near Stoney and BeddingtonTr/Symons Valley road. Some crayfish remains under the bridge Hidden Creek Blvd. With the new pathway going in there and development along the creek in Evanston facing Sage there’s been a noticeable drop in wildlife (such as it was) activity.