Encounter with a Mink

This weekend while walking in the valley adjacent to Reading I settled down on the bank of the river at a bend to have lunch: a spot I thought most likely to reward me with the sight of the electric flash of blue of a passing kingfisher. No sooner had I made myself comfortable than I heard playful squeaks coming from the a group of tree roots on the opposite bank. Looking over I saw a dark furry snout emerge followed by the rest of a long bushy animal that turned to squeak at its assailant before leaping into the water: a black strip of fur, buoyant in the water that swam quickly to the bank, scrambled up and into the undergrowth. A few seconds later it came scrambling under a fallen tree to a look out point right opposite me. It seemed to yawn - and I could see a few sharp and distinctly carnivorous teeth - and to settle down before bounding off into the undergrowth.

I waited conspiculous but not moving for what must have been 10minutes but nothing stirred except for a pair of Red Kites quartering the sky behind. Figuring I was being watched I moved so that I was lying down and hidden. Immediately a length of black fur about 50cm long including tail bounded from the undergrowth, around the tree and dived in shaking its red squirrel like tail. There was plenty more squeeking followed by another exit and an excursion down the river in the other direction.

Now I have been an avid watcher of insects and reptiles all my life, and in the last 3 years birds. And, this is no Attenborough like mountain gorilla experience admittedly, but the contrast between the previous groups of animals and this Mink was unmistakable and immediate. There was a real sense of intelligence in its movements, and the sense of being surveyed and watched. Birds and insects are very simple - they just fly away (unless they are robins). Reptiles the same. Even mice and voles have a very simple strategy of going quiet when there is disturbance, but starting up again after a few minutes of quiet. To be "watched" is an extraordinary experience when it comes from an animal - and one so small.

A truly unique wildlife moment for me, and a new found respect for mammals who I've always found the most boring of animal groups (probably owing to their uniform brown coats).