Today when Jonathan and I got to work, I happened to notice a small, furry animal just outside the parking garage. My first thought was that it was a ferret, but I knew that was wrong. As soon as we were parked, I asked Jonathan to take my laptop upstairs to the office while I went in search of this critter.
He was still there, but he was fast. I was fiddling with the camera trying to get the setting right as he dashed in and out of the shadows. Twice he went into the stairwell – a dead end. The first time he did this, he quickly slipped past me. I followed at a distance, still fiddling with exposure times and f-stops. Then he returned to the stairwell again. This time I blocked his exit while I took several shots.
None of them did this creature justice, and I am most definitely not happy with any of them. I guess that’s what makes flower photography so comparatively easy. Sure, they are oft times buffeted by the wind, but they can’t run away!
Believe it or not, I was able to recall a semblance of the Latin name before I knew the common name. Ferret? Ermine? I thought “Neovision vision”, but Google told me “Neovison vison”. Or as most people would say, American Mink.
Update: What a dope I am! This is not Neovison vison at all, but rather, a stoat, aka ermine, aka Mustela erminea. A stoat has a white underbelly and a black-tipped tail. A mink does not.
Here are my awful shots:
Can't get out this way!
Maybe I can slip by again!
But he won't let me!
I'll try the back way!
Hah! Freedom is mine!
I didn’t keep him hemmed in for more than a minute. But now I wonder how he made out after I left.
Jomegat's Weblog 
August 18, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Nice to get to see him, but he might be in big trouble being so far out of his element. He got there though, he might be able to get back out!
August 18, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Yeah, I was a little worried about him. He was less than a quarter mile from the Merrimack River, but I-93 was between him and it. That could present a challenge. Maybe he could find a way to “weasel” under the interstate though.
August 19, 2011 at 7:24 am
Glad to see you weaseled around and ferreted or d ermined what critter it was. I have seen mink in ditches that have spots of water miles from lakes and rivers. In fact the Little Woman backed over one in the driveway last year we are about a two miles from Ky lake as the crow flies. Interesting post.
August 19, 2011 at 8:06 am
A mink just like this showed up at our church a couple of years ago. I got a few photos then and sent it on to Fish & Game, and they kindly identified it for me. The tell-tale mark is the black tip on the tail. Problem is – they identified it as a stoat, not as a mink! I should have looked it up!
August 19, 2011 at 9:08 am
[…] Correction, Mustela erminea | Leave a Comment I mid-identified the small furry mammal in Wednesday’s post, and I am super-embarrassed about that. In the back of my head, I had two names – ermine, and […]
August 23, 2011 at 11:31 am
He looks so sweet! Bet he knows the way around better than any of us!
August 23, 2011 at 11:34 am
Maybe he does! But I think he was out of his element.