Minks and Weasels in Wanstead

An e-mail from Tim Harris arrived this morning, reporting a Weasel seen by people on a North East London RSPB walk on Wanstead Flats last Monday. I've seen Stoats or Weasels in Wanstead Park, but haven't heard of them from Wanstead Flats.

This afternoon, Stuart Monro of the Wanstead Parklands Community Project told me that his neighbour had seen a Weasel visiting their garden on the Lakehouse Estate, next to Bush Wood. It had been stealing the goldfish from the pond. A slight coincidence in reports there, so I went into the neighbours to find out more. As we were looking at their pond - out of it climbed a furry mammal! My impression was of something somewhat larger than a Weasel or even a Stoat, a dark colour - and keen on fish. Although it appeared a small specimen, it was possibly a female Mink;  unfortunately, as we were searching for a camera, it made its escape. The other possibility is a Ferret, but these are usually crepuscular animals - meaning that in the middle of the afternoon, they'd probably be asleep. Minks may well be present during the daytime, and - as was the case this afternoon - even when a number of humans were about.

Apparently a lot of fish had gone missing from the pond, even though it is netted. The creature is obviously onto a good thing, as there were still a good number left. What surprises me is the distance that it is from what might be a more usual mink-type habitat: perhaps at least somewhere near a river. We definitely have them in the Roding and adjacent Wanstead Park, but this is the first record of what might be a Mink from the Lakehouse Estate.

Paul Ferris, 2nd September

Update

Stuart sent me a photograph of the creature a couple of weeks later, taken by another neighbour...

A Ferret at a garden pond, Lake House Estate, Wanstea

It suggests a ferret rather than a mink, but it does look like a cat!

P.F. 20th September