Tinicum scores a new species

For quite a while now, folks at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum have been hearing about people spotting a mink within the boundaries of the refuge.

Now, they have photographic evidence.

Christian Hunold, a political science professor at Drexel University, spotted the animal along the north side of the trolley bed near the eagle nest in early June and took a shot.

This isn't an expansion of the mink's normal range -- something the refuge has also been anticipating. With warming temperatures, species will move north.  Or, in the case of mountainous regions, they'll move upslope.

The mink is more the case of an improving environment. "Following nesting eagles, it gives even more testimony for a cleaner environment and the success of 40 years of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and Earth Day," said refuge manager Gary Stolz.

Here's Hunold's account of how he discovered the little guy:

"I'm shooting a little green heron fishing off a branch across one of the small ponds at the refuge. The heron's really too far away and the scene not particularly exciting. Meanwhile I'm vaguely aware of some scurrying in the underbrush behind me. Because the water level is so low I'm actually standing in what would normally be the pond, a few feet in from the water's edge. I glance over my left shoulder to see what's causing the commotion and notice what seems like a rat peeking out from a hole at the base of a tree. Great, I think, rats aren't exactly special but I've never photographed one. So I jack up the ISO to 1600, which is probably the only way to get a small brown animal sitting in a dark hole under a tree on a shady bank with my f/5.6 lens and turn left ... and realize that the rat is really a young mink. It's watching one of its siblings munch on something in the shrubbery off to stage right and is sort of curious about me. Fortunately the den sits just outside my ancient manual focus 600mm lens's minimum focusing distance of approximately 5 million feet, so I don't have to move and risk scaring the mink. I get about 20 shots off before the mink retreats into the den and the show's over."

He's graciously allowed us to use his photo, which accompanies this post.