Mink at Bluffers Park in Toronto

This Mink with bread in its mouth on 1 February 2015 is also eating ducks and gulls at Bluffers Park in east Toronto. Ron Pittaway and I watched it skirt the boat launch harbour, where it ran in and out along the ice edge eyeing potential prey. It went for a gull but failed to catch it. On 31 January, Justin Peter noticed Mink tracks leading to a partly eaten Mallard.

Mallards with leucistic Trumpeter Swan (pinkish orange legs) feeding on corn. Concentration of birds feeding close to the shoreline make it easier for the Mink to ambush prey. 1 February 2015.

On Saturday, 31 January 2015, I met up with friends Barry Cherriere and Mourad Jabra who came from Hamilton to look at the gulls. They told me that right before I arrived a mink grabbed an adult Ring-billed Gull, struggled with it, got it by the neck, killed it and dragged it under an ice-covered rock. They were taken by surprise, it happened so quickly they could hardly focus their cameras.