What'll It Be - Carrion Or Mink? Bald Eagle & Mink

"Wow! I love Totman Cove Take-Out! It's better than Red's Eats in Wiscasset!"

This is as close to a critter cam as you could get, I'm sure of it. I took these shots less than an hour ago. I was sitting in my underwear at my computer reading e mail. Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed over swinging around from my left shoulder. "EAGLE!" I screamed to my husband and out the door I ran. The Butchie Boys mom was back! As you can see, the seal carcass is still there, boding well for my planned skull recovery. It's wedged tightly into the rocks. Madame Butchie has to use the full force of her wings and neck muscles to pull morsels from it. She yarns out  hunks then nibbles away quite daintily at the tidbits on the rocks. Before I crept across the deck and down the stairs for closer shots, my loving and attentive husband whispered from the door, "Would you like your bathrobe?" I whispered back, "Ya, and another camera battery, please." He had already brought coffee and breakfast to me in bed. What a guy. Other women's husbands hate it when I tell stuff like this because they look like marital slouches by comparison. And, unless they are obliging their own queens in these ways, they are. Tighten up your acts, boys!
     While I was watching Madame Butchie gnarling away, an American Mink showed up. I had recently been thinking about them as it was this time last year that I had last seen them. The eagle heard the mink first, then saw it. Twice, the mink scampered by, not fifty feet from her. I could tell she could hear it as she stopped yanking yuk and turned to it. She hesitated, glared at the mink, then fondly eyed the carcass. She looked at the mink again. But, in the end, the bird in the hand, or carcass in the claw as it were, won out over the possibility of fresh meat. We like to think of the majestic eagle as a hunter first and carrion scavenger second, but in this case, that was not true.
    Now, gentlemen, I suggest you all turn to your own bird in the hand, that dear old carcass you have at home, and go buy her flowers.

These eagle photographs were taken with a Canon 50D, Canon Zoom lens EF 100-400mm IS, L series at about 40 feet distance. Nice back yard I've got! 

 

American Mink scampering across the rocks and seaweed

Each time I've watched this eagle eating here at the Totman Cove Take-Out, she waddles away to the grass where she can dip her beak into the water and tidy up. I can anticipate when she'll take off based on this sequence of behaviors.

"Don't Blink, It's Another MINK!"

I have noticed an abundance of these American Mink along the shore this year. A few nights ago, I was having cocktails with a neighbor. We were sitting on her porch overlooking the water. Suddenly, a mink bounced onto the lawn, stood on it's hind legs while studying us, then bounced away back down to the rocks. I have seen them numerous times in front of our house while NOT under the influence of Martinis. Our dog yodels wildly when he sees one darting amongst the rocks. I took these photos on Little Wood Island which sits about two miles off the coast of Phippsburg on the west side. This is an American Mink. You can tell it's not a European Mink by its accent. Actually, European Minks are distinguishable by a white mark on their head. They are an introduction to our ecology and do not fare as well as the American Mink. Our mink eats anything. In the wild they eat small fish and other marine life caught in tidal pools and small birds. I've seen them most often at low tide, hunting the stranded amongst the cracks of rocks and sea weed. Rabbits are reported to be their favorite food. I've never seen a rabbit here. Perhaps they've eaten them all. There aren't any Common Eiders' nests on Little Wood Island anymore, reportedly because the mink have consumed them. In captivity on mink farms, where they are raised for fur, they eat expired cheese and dairy products and dog food. A lobster fisherman I know complains that if he leaves sandwiches or chips overnight on his boat the the mink climb aboard and steal his lunch. I'm sure that European Mink eat foi gras, scones and vichyssoise which is why they have not done as well here. Certainly, they would look down their noses at dog food or fouled cheese. Mink are territorial. A single male will defend an area of several miles around a pond edge or a strip of coastline. I've seen more than one here, so I'm guessing they were this year's kits. Mink have one litter a year of about 6 kits. They can retain embryos until it's suitable to give birth, but this usually takes place in the spring. They are about 18" from head to tail end and have rich, chocolaty fur. Lovely as the fur is, my first thought on seeing them has never been "Hey! I think I'll kill a whole lot of them and make a coat!" Who comes up with that stuff anyway?