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dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 05 8:38 pm    Post subject: mink Reply with quote
    

i can locate two so far where i live , they do eat duck eggs , should i trap and kill them or allow nature to adjust ? people try to get rid of aliens but all species(maybe not polar bears) were aliens to britain at the end of the last glacial 12000yrs ago . himalayan balsam is very good for bumblebees etc .should i make a hat and some fishing flies?i cant decide , fate is in your hands .i do find them as beautiful as otters , they do NOT eat all the fish . have mink changed your environment? the yellow one is really stunning to look at and the dark downstream one is bold as . i think females as they seem to hold territory with about half a mile of river and adjacent canal each . i like them , so the hat argument needs to be convincing

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 05 11:45 pm    Post subject: Re: mink Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
i can locate two so far where i live , they do eat duck eggs , should i trap and kill them or allow nature to adjust ? people try to get rid of aliens but all species(maybe not polar bears) were aliens to britain at the end of the last glacial 12000yrs ago .


Different species were native, but not all species. Weren't kangaroos

Quote:

himalayan balsam is very good for bumblebees etc .


But it's catastrophically bad for a lot of other native flora.

Quote:

should i make a hat and some fishing flies?i cant decide , fate is in your hands .i do find them as beautiful as otters , they do NOT eat all the fish . have mink changed your environment? the yellow one is really stunning to look at and the dark downstream one is bold as . i think females as they seem to hold territory with about half a mile of river and adjacent canal each . i like them , so the hat argument needs to be convincing


They're beautiful animals. I'd say that if they can be eradicated where you are, it's worth doing so; the aesthetics of a non-native species are less important than their impact on biodiversity. Whether trapping the ones you're aware of will have that affect is a different matter.

judyofthewoods



Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 05 12:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My boundary is a river, and my neighbour across the river and myself have stopped the mink hunt along this stretch for the past ten years or so. There are ducks, there are fish, and many other species, incl. otter. As far as I can tell, there is nothing amiss. I would agree with Himalayan balsam being a very invasive species, as it is spreading on my padock, however, it is a lot easier to eradicate than Japanese knotweeed, and it is not preventing the natural succession to climax to occur, as there are also plenty of trees growing there, and before long they will shade out any of the non-native weeds. If I wanted to keep it as a padock, I would have to keep mowing to get rid of it, or pull it up before it flowers, and do that every year until the seedstock is gone. How long? I dread to think. As for the mink, they must be keeping their numbers in balance, as I have not seen the place overrun by them or seen the damage they are supposed to do, with the one-off exception of loosing a couple of chicks to one. I did not see it happen, but was told that the small puncture wound on either side of the head was a tell-tale sign of mink.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 05 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

interesting so far . i asked a few people and looked on the net and feelings seem to be quite broadranging .i was pleased to hear that they do not prevent otters from residence in an area , my local rivers were dead 30 yrs ago from industrial and domestic pollution so mink , trout , grayling , herons , kingfishers and everything down the food chain is a plus . the river system is not fully clean but in 1976 my local section only could support bacteria and fungi with bloodworms in the areas where flow over a drop added a bit of o2 , so maybe the otters will reclaim the water , there are some secluded places even in urban landscapes.possibly more secluded than in the countryside , i will treat mink like seals and we can share the fish more about balsam knotweed and such please . the local balsam is prolific and supports many types of bee and other types of insect .what other effects does it have and can i eat it?

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 05 8:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

judyofthewoods wrote:
My boundary is a river, and my neighbour across the river and myself have stopped the mink hunt along this stretch for the past ten years or so. There are ducks, there are fish, and many other species, incl. otter. As far as I can tell, there is nothing amiss.


You're lucky then. Talking with some of the locals up near Stornoway earlier this year, they all talk about a time before the mink when you used to see a lot of birds

The impact they have really depends on what you're looking at and where you are; certain species really suffer.

Quote:

I would agree with Himalayan balsam being a very invasive species, as it is spreading on my padock, however, it is a lot easier to eradicate than Japanese knotweeed, and it is not preventing the natural succession to climax to occur, as there are also plenty of trees growing there, and before long they will shade out any of the non-native weeds.


There are patches by the River Trent where Himalayan Balsam is all you see. Tons of the stuff, out-competing the native flora such that the river bank supports a much less diverse range of species than it ought. It's a mess. You'll still get a seral succession, but there's more to conservation than reaching an approximation of climax vegetation

Quote:

If I wanted to keep it as a padock, I would have to keep mowing to get rid of it, or pull it up before it flowers, and do that every year until the seedstock is gone. How long? I dread to think. As for the mink, they must be keeping their numbers in balance, as I have not seen the place overrun by them or seen the damage they are supposed to do, with the one-off exception of loosing a couple of chicks to one. I did not see it happen, but was told that the small puncture wound on either side of the head was a tell-tale sign of mink.


We have to keep all of these things in context; we're stuck with many non-native species (rabbits, sycamore, Japanese knotweed, fennel, alexanders, ground elder, horse chestnut, himalayan balsam...) and we just have to manage our environment accordingly so that we maintain a level of species diversity that is practical, aesthetically pleasing and workable. I suspect that your paddock is just part of a stream bank covered in balsam?

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 05 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
more about balsam knotweed and such please . the local balsam is prolific and supports many types of bee and other types of insect .what other effects does it have and can i eat it?


The seed pods of Himalayan balsam can be eaten, and while they're rich in Vitamin C theyr'e also revolting. Well, I find them revolting.

It is a very invasive plant; true enough, bees like it, but trundle about on riverbanks that are infested with it and then others that have a rich native flora, and there's no comparison at all.

Japanese knotweed is the most invasive and nasty weed in Britain. Barring none. Really. And it tastes great. Have a look here, it's in the April wild food article.

https://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Wild_Food/Top_Ten_Wild_Foods_for_April/

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 05 8:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

cab wrote:
You'll still get a seral succession,


I beg your pardon?

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 05 10:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Bugs wrote:
cab wrote:
You'll still get a seral succession,


I beg your pardon?


Oops...

This is the kind of thing you take for granted if you've studied any ecology, but it's worth sharing what this means for those who haven't.

Seral succession.

Imagine walking from the sea across a sandy beach, up through the sand dunes, across a grassy scrubby bit of land, and into a younf birchwood and then into a forest.

That's a sere. You can look at a sere spacially (a habitat developing as sand is deposited on a beach, inland are the made up of that sand, further inland there's scrubland that grows up on dunes, etc.). Or you can look at it in terms of time (the sand being deposited on the beach now will form dunes, which will have grass on them, etc).

Each seral stage has a certain flora and fauna associated with it; knock over some of the biodiversity on any one of those stages and you may (or may not) impact on the final stage. That final stage (the mature woodland in the example I've used) is called the climax community.

You can now imagine (I hope) the same process going on in a marshland, on a river bank, etc.

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 05 10:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Ahhh. Chink of light now, thanks. Makes sense. I had never in my life heard that word (sere or seral) though! Thank you

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 05 10:36 pm    Post subject: knotweed Reply with quote
    

treat the shoots like asparagus? leaves as cabbage? roots?when i was a kid we used to drink the liquid from the stem which was sort of ok .maybe knotweed recipes ?

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 05 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

life is invasive . i'll try jkw and balsam and report ,, however i will be cautious and run each through the harmlessness tests before i get stuck in . ta .especially as i dont see much munching on them ,maybe the local critters just dont see them as food , i have found balsam seed in trout , but they did'nt live to digest them cos they met me.. that is no test .. both these plants seem safe from slug , bunny , catterpillar etc . do we want himalayan rabbits and japanese aphids to thin them or has that made matters worse when it has been tried?

Last edited by dpack on Tue Aug 30, 05 11:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 05 10:51 pm    Post subject: Re: knotweed Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
treat the shoots like asparagus? leaves as cabbage? roots?when i was a kid we used to drink the liquid from the stem which was sort of ok .maybe knotweed recipes ?


Cut the leaves off young stems and stew it down with sugar like rhubarb. Use it in place of rhubarb in wine. Grill the young shoots with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar (I don't like that at all, but some do). Do a search for Wildman Steve Brill, I think he has some recipes online.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 05 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

yum ta
any body got any others as well

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Aug 31, 05 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

balsam seed pods are ok ish i will try toasting the seeds which seem quite rich and nutty you are right about the pods though , they seem to have a lingering aftertaste which isnt horrid but it isnt nice ,maybe steamed ? i will let you know .

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Tue Nov 22, 05 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

will your /my mink breed in the spring ? is that good ?

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