Just when you least expect it…

It was not as dark and smokey as yesterday morning, but still pretty dark, and I had a meeting at 9am anyway, so I opted to wait until after the meeting to visit Estabrook Park. I didn’t expect to see much, but I thought maybe I’d find some butterflies. Instead, I was reminded that you just never know what you might find.

As I was coming south along the river from the north end, I stopped to check out the large group of mallards gathered on the sandbar that protrudes downstream from the southern island. I spotted this hen with her seven ducklings and thought they might make a nice picture.

Then I couldn’t believe my eyes at who trotted down off the island toward the water, barely a dozen feet in front of the ducklings. Yup, that’s one of the mink I’ve been after for ages, and I cannot identify what it is carrying.

It trotted right into the water, and the mallard hen got quite excited about that.

But the mink never flinched and swam directly to the eastern riverbank, where it disappeared with its cargo. A couple of mallards followed, from a safe-enough distance, for sure, and just to make sure it kept going, I suppose. I had witnessed the same behavior on the pond.

Meanwhile, the hen took a moment to collect herself, …

and then life went back to normal, and you would never know anything had happened if you had just arrived at the scene.

There are plenty more pictures, too, but I’ve got another 9am meeting tomorrow that will probably take all morning, so I’d better hold on to them.