Our temperatures have been seriously cold for December –much more like it usually is in January or February. On Thursday of this week, we finally reached a high of 13 or 14º and it was the warmest day in 8 days! This warming trend (if you can call it that) continued into this weekend and this Saturday was fairly tolerable –especially when the sun even came out. I bundled up and went first for a walk at MAC park over in Crystal behind the airport. It's kind of a small park but similar habitat to PLP. However I didn't see hardly anything there save for maybe a Nuthatch, a couple of Woodpeckers, and a Red-tailed Hawk from a long ways away. I was still hungry for seeing some wildlife and so after my short hike there I ended up at PLP anyways. I decided to hike right through the snow along the tree line along the northeast side from 73rd Avenue. I'd hardly walked in 50 feet or so when I saw something small and brown scurry away not to far ahead to my right. I stopped immediately in my tracks as to not make any more noise. At first I thought it was a weasel because it was so small. But then I saw it again briefly and realized it was yet another Mink! This was quite a ways from the creek so I was quite surprised to see him way out here. On my last glimpse he'd darted behind a mound of snow supported by tall weeds underneath. I decided to go down on haunches and wait a while since he was SO very close. After 5 or more minutes I couldn't hold that position and stood up.
Shortly after I saw a pink nose slowly rise up over a snowbank. Then a pair of eyes that looked directly at me. He was no more than 10 feet away. I stood there motionless taking a few photos but my camera was focusing on small weeds that were in between us. The mink eventually went back down as did I again. I tried moving to my left just a tad in order to clear the weeds that were blocking my view.
Right after I did I saw him pop his head up again, this time even closer to me now at about 8 feet away. I was ready for him this time and clicked away on continuous mode. He fully stood up, arms dangling at his side and stared directly at me. I couldn't believe it. Though I didn't move I guarantee he knew I was there but didn't seem too threatened. For a moment he turned to look to the side but never really took one eye off me. After just a short while he disappeared again. I knew I'd gotten some decent shots but decided to wait another while just in case. But after staying as still as I had for this long, I was about frozen by this time and had to get up and move. I decided to walk in towards where he disappeared and found only a small opening in the grass. I couldn't even locate his tracks which stumped me for a while. Then I realized something –he was likely traveling underneath the snow all along, only popping up here and there for a look.
I imagined the Mink might have had quite an elaborate system of roads underneath the snow and I hoped I hadn't crushed any of them. Though I've actually been even closer in proximity to them before, this was the first time we both knew how close we were!
Shortly after I saw a pink nose slowly rise up over a snowbank. Then a pair of eyes that looked directly at me. He was no more than 10 feet away. I stood there motionless taking a few photos but my camera was focusing on small weeds that were in between us. The mink eventually went back down as did I again. I tried moving to my left just a tad in order to clear the weeds that were blocking my view. 
Right after I did I saw him pop his head up again, this time even closer to me now at about 8 feet away. I was ready for him this time and clicked away on continuous mode. He fully stood up, arms dangling at his side and stared directly at me. I couldn't believe it. Though I didn't move I guarantee he knew I was there but didn't seem too threatened. For a moment he turned to look to the side but never really took one eye off me. After just a short while he disappeared again. I knew I'd gotten some decent shots but decided to wait another while just in case. But after staying as still as I had for this long, I was about frozen by this time and had to get up and move. I decided to walk in towards where he disappeared and found only a small opening in the grass. I couldn't even locate his tracks which stumped me for a while. Then I realized something –he was likely traveling underneath the snow all along, only popping up here and there for a look. 
I imagined the Mink might have had quite an elaborate system of roads underneath the snow and I hoped I hadn't crushed any of them. Though I've actually been even closer in proximity to them before, this was the first time we both knew how close we were!
You are sure doing well with the minks. Loved your blogs. Keep up the good work.
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