ENORMOUS MINK

While paddling the canoe up Abrams Creek back on October 22, 2011 - I noticed a black streak flashing off to my left on the shoreline.  I passed up the spot where I saw it and allowed the canoe to slowly drift back to a point where I saw the black streak.
Suddenly, an enormous mink appeared from behind a log.  He was a monster mink!  I later did some investigation and tried to find another explanation for his identity   It is indeed a mink.  I did my best to hold the canoe in position while I rapidly photographed him.

He was just making his way along the water poking his head into every rock fissure and hole in the bank.

He didn't notice me and just did his own thing at a slow pace.

The bow of the canoe kept trying to turn the boat downstream with the current and I had to continually ip the paddle into the water with my left hand while holding the camera with my right.  It was then that he started noticing that things weren't as usual.

I went back and found these shots because my mention of seeing a mink yesterday on the Holston River caused a few comments from readers about really wanting to see a mink in the wild.  So, here is one.

He's really onto me now and pauses for a portrait as he tries to figure out what I am.  

And, there you have it - a wild mink, and a big one he is.  The one I saw on the Holston yesterday was 1/3rd the size of this one.  Minks this large are unheard of.  That's it - see ya.