Monday Morning Mink

I had an extra day off from work today for MLK Day so I visited the park just after 11am. It was colder than yesterday at around 27 degrees. After hearing reports of attempted vehicle thefts at my normal parking spot, I've changed to parking on the east side now. Going in my usual clockwise direction, I see the whole south end of the park first now. Only minutes after leaving my vehicle I was passing by the small pond south of the baseball diamonds and was amazed to see a critter pop his head out of a small hole in the ice near the shoreline. I was within mere feet when I spotted this protruding face and I hadn't even taken my camera out of the case yet! The animal saw me pretty quickly as well and darted back under. It's quick behavior, shape and color told me that it was a Mink and I was shocked to have gotten this close to one. I though to myself I'll never have a better photo opportunity of one so I decided to sit there and wait for him to reappear. I had to explain to a lot of passersby why I was standing there staring down at a frozen pond. I even told a few people what I had just seen and they looked at me kind of strange -either not knowing what a Mink was, or disbelieving that one would be in a city park. After about 20 minutes I was ready to give up and then he popped his head out once more. This time he didn't come out as far and kind of rested his head on the snow for a second. I slowly moved up my camera, took one shot and then he was gone again. It was one of only 7 photos I took during my entire walk -and quite a lucky one at that!