Susan Stephens' Writing Diary

There I was, standing by the stream thinking how lucky I was to have this stretch of water attracting so much wonderful wildlife to my door, when I saw it... swimming lazily down the stream it had adopted, and then, to add insult to far too much injury, slipping inside the den lately inhabited by Mrs Moorhen and her family. No wonder I haven't seen the family Moorhen for a while... and no wonder the ducklings were decimated before our very eyes... We have a Mink.

Not a native of these shores as I'm sure you're aware- or at least they didn't used to be until some misguided folk released them to do murder in the countryside.

Now, I'm the last person to advocate caging animals- I am deeply averse to circus, zoo, and any other manipulation of the wonderful creatures with whom we share this planet- But, who the hell thought of releasing mink into the wild here in the UK without giving a thought to the 'rights' of our own wildlife?

I imagine in their natural habitat there are predators who control the mink population, but here there is little to stop them breeding and taking over.
I know one thing for sure, there will be no more ducklings, moorhen, yellow wagtails or any other lovely creatures here in my stretch of stream until our resident psychopath moves on.
And when it does, what then?

Had a lovely call from my ed', which wasn't too good for her, battling the flu as she was... Exciting times on the horizon, if I ever get through all the work.
Ah, well, I'm certainly not complaining!

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan