Minnie the Mink Makes a Move

Minnie's stunt double crossing the river in a scene from her soon to be released movie.

Minnie too is wondering when all of the snow will be gone.

The weather has been so nice lately that I have resumed having my late morning coffee out on the deck, if it's not raining that is.  Sure there's still lots of snow left on the ground, about 24" (60 cm), but with temperatures in the high 40s F (5 C) during the day, it's starting to feel (dare I say it?) a lot like Spring.  So anyway, this morning I'm out enjoying the warm weather, sunshine and my coffee when who should appear out of the pond's drainpipe but Minnie the Mink.  She started to scamper across the ice along the far bank and then realized that the dogs and I were intently watching her from the deck.  By the time I rushed inside and got the camera, she had disappeared back into the pond's drainage culvert.  After a few minutes I saw her reappear near the river, swim across and start exploring.  She sniffed and searched busily along a 200 meter arc on the far side of our property before disappearing from view.  Unfortunately she was too far for me to get a shot with the camera.  Although some minks do turn white in the Winter, Minnie is black.  The white and the black minks are the same species.  They're excellent hunters and fishers, and I'm sure Minnie appreciates us stocking the pond with all of those plump trout.  She's going to be really excited about the chickens we're getting this Spring/Summer.  Mink's apparently are extraordinarily gifted at getting into chicken coops and raising hell.  Think of all of those eggs to eat, topped off with the occasional chicken dinner!   Of course, I'm the one responsible for designing and building the mink-proof, fox-proof, coon-proof chicken coop.  But hey, no pressure.  As we keep telling ourselves, they're just chickens.