The hard to find mink is found

Despite beeing a disaster for birdlife the mink is hard to find in Iceland. This serie of photos is taken in south-Iceland of a family of female and two cubs. The evening sun made the light great and with some planning it was possible to photograph them for a while. (Einar Gudmann)Despite beeing a disaster for birdlife the mink is hard to find in Iceland. This serie of photos is taken in south-Iceland of a family of female and two cubs. The evening sun made the light great and with some planning it was possible to photograph them for a while. (Einar Gudmann)The mink is one of the hardest to find creatures for photographers in Iceland. I have seen minks while flyfishing or at night when it is not easy to get decent photographs of them. This bad luck did change few days ago when I noticed aggressive behavior of birds around a small pond while I was driving in south Iceland. Knowing this behavior of the birds could only mean that they were trying to get rid of a mink I parked the car and we ran out with the camera gear. Walking back 200 m we walked towards the spot the birds had been aggressive at. Suddenly a mink ran over the road and down the creek on the other side. The mink disappeared and despite searching we did not find it. At this point the only photo I had was of a minks behind.

I decided to wait for a while and positioned myself into the sun and wind of the direction which the mink disappeared. Only 30 minutes later the birds behavior indicated that something was in the grass and getting closer. Suddenly three minks appeared on the run towards me. Having the sun behind me made a big difference. I took few shots and ran into the sun to keep it behind finally the minks went into a hole under the road. They showed themselves quite often and were relaxed. At the end of sunset two photographers were extremely happy with this beautiful day and the modelling minks.

The gallery of minks