Guess The Critter

I guess you don't have to guess, I got it figured-out finally.

Meet Mustela vision - the American mink.

 

For awhile I figured this to be a long-tailed weasel.  Not so.  A pal of mine who is a retired wildlife biologist tells me he believes this to be a mink.  I'm glad we got that figured-out because I can't keep them straight most of the time.  Mink, weasels, martens and otters all belong to the same family - Mustelidae.  Difficult to determine with a trail camera the mink is slightly larger than a long-tailed weasel.

The American mink is a semi-aquatic species of mustelid native to North America.  I have found this critter's tracks in the snow over the years and trail camera photos more frequently of late.

A strict carnivore, mink feed on mice, voles, rabbits, muskrats, frogs, fish and crayfish.  They also prey-upon birds and their eggs.  As a strong and agile swimmer much of their food is obtained closer to the shoreline habitat.

With the exception of the mating season this is a solitary critter.  Polygamous, both sexes will mate with multiple partners but it is the females that raise the young.  Breeding around here  begins in March.  Litter sizes range from two to eight  (typically four) and the young become independent at six months of age.

Unlike some weasels this critter does not turn white with winter.  The pelt (fur) of this animals is quite valuable; as a consequence, domestic farming of mink provides the majority of the fur that is brought to market. 

This species' conservation status is of least concern.

For the record; From last year this is a long-tailed weasel in it's wintertime livery...

 

What is it?

Too large to be a tick and not the correct anatomy.

Having previously sprayed my shoes and pants with Permethrin I found this critter on my ankle later-on.  It wasn't attached to my skin, but it had tiny little legs moving and what appeared to be antennae or pincers.  Larger than a sesame seed.

Google ID was not of much (definitive) help.  Insect nymph?  Bedbug?

 

Tracking

From our walk the other morning there were these fresh tracks in the fresh snow...

Weasel

Deer Mouse

And Wile E. Coyote

Guess the Critter

Migrants from that friendly country to the north have been visiting.

They appear to be undocumented.

Who is it?

Guess the Critter

Two critters are included in this trail camera photo.

click on the image to find it

Can you identify them both?

Winter Critter Identification

I happen to be one of the rare individuals who embraces winter.  The cold doesn't particularly bother me as long as I'm dressed for the conditions (and not fighting for survival).  The night skies are clear and sharp and offer the most excellent opportunities to engage in amateur astronomy - and on occasion the northern lights pay a visit to my latitude.  There are no mosquitos or sociopath yellow jacket wasps.  And there is evidence of the animals on the landscape - namely their tracks that are easily found in the snow.  And it's not like you have to travel far at all as long as you are observant.

Just for fun I've posted a handful of photos of animal tracks found in the yard immediately adjacent to the house.  See if you can match them with the animals listed below. 

 

 

click on images to enlarge

 

Choose from the following:  feral cat, ring neck pheasant, dark-eyed junco, deer mouse, whitetail deer 

 

Guess The Critter

Last week I posted a photo of some tracks paralleling the south bank of Silver Creek.  I guessed they were left by a weasel.  Nevertheless, I sent a photo to my pal who is a biologist with the UW-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology.  You know her - she's the same person mentioned in Sunday's post.

She suggested mink - so I wasn't too far off.

Last weekend while out turkey hunting I came across these tracks.  About the same size as the mink tracks but in single file.  A critter walking deliberately and not leaping in fits and starts like a weasel.









My guess is feral cat.  

I'll save pestering my biologist friend for the difficult critter identification.

click on images for a closer look

 

Guess the Critter

click on image to enlarge

 

A small set of tracks paralleling the south bank of the creek heading west.  Small critter as they didn't leave much of an impression on the deep wet snow.  

Who left them?

Guess the Critter

click on image for a better look

From the trail camera located in the cool darkness of the planting on the north forty taken a week ago Wednesday at 4:35 AM.

Who is it?

Where Is It?

Working in the flower bed Jill found a monarch butterfly chrysalis.  Possibly from one of the three caterpillars I posted a photo of over the weekend.  Well, who knows for sure - there's been so many this year and they all look alike.

When it emerges this butterfly will be sexually immature and if favorable temperatures and following winds arrive with no small amount of luck it will make the migration to Mexico to overwinter and begin the process all over again in 2018.

Click on the image to enlarge this photo.  Can you find the chrysalis?  

 

Guess the Critter

From a walk in the woods...
 

The first set of tracks might be from a member of the weasel family?

Photo bomb notwithstanding the second looks like an erratic, miniature trench line made by a rodent forging thru the powdery snow.  Vole perhaps?

Help.

Guess the Critter

This showed-up on the trail camera located on the north end of the property.

I see an eye (upper right), a possible second eye (center left) and a nose I think (lower center).  Fuzzy fringe of hair.  It is most definitely a face about eighteen inches from the ground.

What the heck is it?

Guess the Critter

I found a collection of excavations like this.

An animal burrow slightly larger than an inch in diameter with a muddy excavation.

Got no idea what it is.

You?

Guess the Critter

A short three shot burst of this critter from earlier in December.

Another short three shot burst of the same critter from mid-December.  Same perspective - from behind.

Who is it?

Guess the Critter

Three shot burst photos of this critter darting past the camera.

Who is it?

click on images to enlarge

 

Guess the Critter

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click to enlarge

Guess the Critter

From one of the trail cameras.

This was taken in the wee hours of the morning by a camera strapped to a tree.  The base of the cam was about a foot off the ground.

What the heck is it?

click on image to enlarge

 

A Mystery Visitor

This is from yesterday.

I have no firm identification for what this is that was captured by one of my trail cameras.

It materialized at 10:37 AM and hung in front of the camera in various positions for five minutes.  It disappeared at 10:41 AM not to return.

click on images to enlarge

It's too fuzzy and bristly to be a deer leg.  Besides, there were no tracks in the snow around the base of the tree when I fetched the SD card a couple of hours later the same day.

My guess is it was some critter's fuzzy tail.

Any ideas?

Guess The Critter

Recall the mystery critter from last Sunday?

Mystery solved!

Check out these frames taken from another location...

It's a mink. 

Have found tracks in the snow and its toboggan-like trail.  First photographic evidence of one.

Guess the Critter

Pretty cool stuff lately on the trail camera.  Two visits of a sly fox.  I think he's sly because he moves around so fast all of the images are blurred.   But it's a fox for sure.  I captured images of another critter that I'll post later. 

Then there is this.  Smaller, dark critter with a glint in the eyes.  You can see it in the center of the first two frames.  And then it is a blur in the left of the third frame.

Any ideas as to what it might be?  I'm stumped.