05-03-2020, 12:29 PM
Feeling very sad. I like to think of myself as live and let live, but there are some species that, reluctantly, I have to admit do need to be controlled - maybe a bit like homo sapiens ...
Although I live on a river I am fortunate that I don't seem to see rats very often. Yesterday morning though I noticed a mink slipping under the door to my storage shed. At first I thought it might be an otter, because they have been making a comeback in this area, but I realised it was too small. All the mink I have seen before have had very dark, mostly black coats, but this one was coconut brown.
The American mink is an invasive species. They are voracious predators and since they became a part of the British wildlife scene following the escape and misguided release of captive mink from the "farms" where they were bred for their fur some fifty years ago native species of waterside mammals, particularly voles, have been decimated. It is now the nesting season and mink will take and destroy a very wide range of wildlife for food - not just the fish and freshwater mussels that I see from time to time as evidence of their proximity, but also eggs from nests and adult birds if they think they can do it. There is a legal requirement to notify the authorities if a mink moves in.
Unless you catch sight of one the first alert is often the smell. Their droppings and hoards of half-eaten animals that they leave in and around their nests have a perfume that few would describe as pleasant. It is sickening. They are also very destructive. One took up residence in a friend's boat a few years ago and caused hundreds of pounds of damage by destroying all the furnishings and leaving piles of those evil-smelling droppings everywhere. I think the cause of the damage to the cratch cover on my own boat a few years ago was probably mink.
I'd noticed some of the dogs on the farm here taking an interest in my shed so obviously something was up. I thought it was probably rats, but when I opened up the shed it was clear this wasn't a rat problem. Something was moving about inside though. I put on my overalls and a pair of work gloves and set to emptying the shed. When I cleared some of it I went to find the lady with the two terriers that have been scratching around the shed. She came down with the dogs and they were immediately on it. They cornered the mink in a box and it was not happy. It was hissing, screeching and lungeing at one of the dogs. The farmer, on whom is the legal requirement to deal with rodents, turned up with his air rifle. When he poked the end of the gun into the box the mink attacked it. After the sow was dispatched the dogs set about finding the kits. There were six newborns. Inside the nest were the remnants of the sow's kill. I thought there seemed fewer moorhens around this year. What I found pointed to one of the reasons.
So, today I am sad, but I have to temper that with the realisation that some of my other wildlife neighbours will likely live for longer.
Although I live on a river I am fortunate that I don't seem to see rats very often. Yesterday morning though I noticed a mink slipping under the door to my storage shed. At first I thought it might be an otter, because they have been making a comeback in this area, but I realised it was too small. All the mink I have seen before have had very dark, mostly black coats, but this one was coconut brown.
The American mink is an invasive species. They are voracious predators and since they became a part of the British wildlife scene following the escape and misguided release of captive mink from the "farms" where they were bred for their fur some fifty years ago native species of waterside mammals, particularly voles, have been decimated. It is now the nesting season and mink will take and destroy a very wide range of wildlife for food - not just the fish and freshwater mussels that I see from time to time as evidence of their proximity, but also eggs from nests and adult birds if they think they can do it. There is a legal requirement to notify the authorities if a mink moves in.
Unless you catch sight of one the first alert is often the smell. Their droppings and hoards of half-eaten animals that they leave in and around their nests have a perfume that few would describe as pleasant. It is sickening. They are also very destructive. One took up residence in a friend's boat a few years ago and caused hundreds of pounds of damage by destroying all the furnishings and leaving piles of those evil-smelling droppings everywhere. I think the cause of the damage to the cratch cover on my own boat a few years ago was probably mink.
I'd noticed some of the dogs on the farm here taking an interest in my shed so obviously something was up. I thought it was probably rats, but when I opened up the shed it was clear this wasn't a rat problem. Something was moving about inside though. I put on my overalls and a pair of work gloves and set to emptying the shed. When I cleared some of it I went to find the lady with the two terriers that have been scratching around the shed. She came down with the dogs and they were immediately on it. They cornered the mink in a box and it was not happy. It was hissing, screeching and lungeing at one of the dogs. The farmer, on whom is the legal requirement to deal with rodents, turned up with his air rifle. When he poked the end of the gun into the box the mink attacked it. After the sow was dispatched the dogs set about finding the kits. There were six newborns. Inside the nest were the remnants of the sow's kill. I thought there seemed fewer moorhens around this year. What I found pointed to one of the reasons.
So, today I am sad, but I have to temper that with the realisation that some of my other wildlife neighbours will likely live for longer.
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