Mustela erminea, not Neovison vison

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 Neovision vision [sic]. I Googled Neovision vision which corrected it to Neovison vison, and when that turned up an American mink, I figured it was solved.

But it was not. I should have pursued the other name as well. An ermine is better known as a stoat, and has the binomial name Mustela erminea. In winter their coats turn white except for the tip of the tail, which remains black.

We saw one of these at the church a couple of years ago so I took several photos and sent one to Fish & Game for an id. And they said it was a stoat.

I organize my photos using a program called digikam (which is an open source package available for Linux, which is my preferred OS). It allows me to tag my photos, and I usually tag by binomial name. I already had a tag for Neovison vison, but there were no photos listed. This is not unusual, because sometimes I archive my photos to DVD to free up hard drive space. This is necessary, because I have taken 30,000 photos in the past three years. When I archive them away, the tags stay in digikam, but the photos disappear. If I bring them back onto my laptop, they show up still tagged.

I suspect N. vison was probably a mistaken tag from when I found the M. erminea, but when I saw the tag, I used that as confirmation.

And that was incorrect! I also have a tag for M. erminea, and here’s who I found under that:

Stoat (Mustela erminea)

Sorry for the mistake! I will be more careful from now on!

 

Neovison vison – NOT!

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.

 

Mink & Robin Eggs

Today was the Pathfinder Club’s annual yard sale. I got up early (for me), and got the kids up too. We ate some breakfast, picked up Joy (she’s a Pathfinder who lives near us), and then set out for the church. First order of business was to move several tables up to the yard. Then fill them with the items that had been donated to us.

While we were doing this, some kids excitedly told me that there was a ferret outside where we normally park our equipment trailer. Cool. I dropped whatever I was doing it and hot-footed it over there. It was somewhat cornered, as the little alcove where we park the trailer is brick on three sides. The fourth side was blanketed with kids. I grabbed my camera. I think it was an American mink (Neovison vison) a stoat (Mustela erminea), known as an ermine when it wears a white coat. Only one shot came out OK-ish:

Stoat (Mustela erminea)

As soon as I got the picture, I directed the kids to step back and let it escape. Which it did. Eventually finding its way into the sanctuary! For all I know, it’s still in the church building somewhere, but maybe that’s not terrible. We do have a few mice it could help us out with.

Once the yard sale was in full swing, the kids kept coming up to me and asking “how much for this?” They were asking because they wanted to buy it. I’m sure the Pathfinder parents really appreciated me selling their kids even more toys, but… such is life. Usually, I would answer “ten cents” and the kids would hand me a dime and stash the toy away somewhere.

Then one of the kids came up to me and asked, “Do you think this is real?” He was holding a small blue egg (made me think of a robin’s egg). I took it from him and said, “I don’t know”. I squeezed it lightly, thinking it might be a wooden egg he had found on one of the tables. That’s when the egg exploded, sending white and yolk all over the two of us. He took it right in the face. I took it all over my hands and shirt. I guess it was real! Maybe even a robin’s egg!

We cut the sale off at 1:00pm, and then started packing up the leftovers for Goodwill. They wouldn’t take most of it, but I was glad they took some of it. Joyce took the rest home and Ken unloaded it somewhere at their place. We are camping on their farm next weekend, so we’ll reload it Sunday and then haul it to the dump afterwards.