MA - American Mink and other cool yard stuff 03/04

The tempo and diversity of species visiting the yard seems to have picked up today heralded by a singing Purple Finch this morning. This afternoon an American Mink caught me off guard as it appeared without warning on the brook behind the house. Within seconds it was gone, heading downstream apparently under the ice. We see Mink tracks fairly frequently by the brook but actual sightings are rare, perhaps less than five per year. This was the closest I've got to taking a picture, but in the heat of the moment I couldn't get a firm focus on the animal and had to settle for these blurry shots. In any event, I was thrilled with the sighting and also had my first Eastern Chipmunk of the year as well. Bird-wise I had nice looks at a singing male Carolina Wren and we were visited by a roaming flock of about 30 Wild Turkeys.

All images from our yard in Gill, Franklin Co., MA. March 4th, 2014.