Year to date - 347 miles
I've seen them before at Hornsea Mere and down Stream Dyke (the Mere outflow) but never so clearly. This American mink (Neovison vison) stayed at the water side for about 30 seconds before diving into the depths.
I don't particularly like them because of the damage they do to our native wildlife but they are well designed and are very adaptable. It would have been better if they'd never been introduced into this country by fur farmers in the 1920's onwards as due to poor management many escaped and colonised the country.
It is usually thought that our non-native population of wild American mink stems from those animals released by animal rights activists in the 1990's, but by the end of 1967 wild mink were already to be found in over half the counties of England and Wales, and in much of lowland Scotland. The releases didn't help but the damage had already been done by then and no co-ordinated management plan for their control was ever implemented.
There is a species of European mink (Mustela lutreola) but this has never been native to Britain.
Our small population of Water Voles down Stream Dyke is therefore under threat from another quarter - as if they didn't have enough hassle from people, dogs, dredging operations to keep the water course clear and possibly stoats and weasels, although I have yet to see either around Stream Dyke.
So I'm afraid we are stuck with them for now.
On a brighter note, the warm sunshine brought out the best of our bird life this morning with Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Skylark, Song Thrush and Wren all singing away, and a pair of Lapwing were displaying and calling by Southorpe Road.
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| Wren, caught between verses |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Dunnock considering which song to start with |
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| Dunnock, having decided, starts his recital |
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