Misc. Critter Encounters

Ermine ~ by Griz ~
Ermine are a vicious little weasel. Cute when seen darting around chasing mice, impressive when taking a full-grown rabbit, downright scary when you consider tangling with one.

Ermine, (Mustela erminea), also called stoat, short-tailed weasel, or Bonaparte weasel, northern weasel species in the genus Mustela, family Mustelidae.

I have a few Ermine tales.

Uncle Clarence: pre 1940
I heard Uncle Clarence tell this story several times by the time I was 6. He was hunting, he spotted a rabbit sitting next to a stump, slowly brought up the shotgun, lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. As expected, there was a very short flurry of motion, then all was still. He went to pick up the rabbit and found dead rabbit and a dead ermine. Both were killed by his shotgun. He thought wow, the ermine must have attacked the rabbit exactly at the time he shot - that has got to be one for the books. Then he noticed that the rabbits throat was slit wide open, jugular was completely severed. One second, the rabbit had been sitting still, cocked ears, twitching nose, trying to be invisible, he pulled the trigger and in that instant the ermine must have sprung from hiding and ripped the throat out of the rabbit, as it was dying from the same shot that hit the rabbit.

Cousin Ken: 1950 (I was 5)
My cousin Ken was a few years older than me and fancied himself as a great trapper. He had 5 or 6 traps set along the creek that ran between our place and theirs. But to my knowledge he never caught anything. Until he caught the ermine in a leg-hold trap. It was still alive when he found it so he hit in the head with the back of his hatchet. He was carrying it home by the tail, with great pride. Out of the blue, he felt flurry of activity, pain and saw ermine running off. All within a split second.. He knew he was cut bad cause blood was pouring over his hand onto the snow. Lucky he was close to home, his mother wrapped it tight and took him to the doctor, they took him to the hospital in Portland. His arm (wrist to mid forearm) was badly sliced in several places. It took lots of stiches to patch him up. He had lost so much blood, the doctors said he was lucky to be alive.

Ducks: 2001?
Trish and I bought a flock of 16 mallard ducks from a local farmer. The idea was a self-sustaining source of eggs, roast duck and slug /insect control, The reality was a lot of work building pen, nest boxes, pond and daily care (let them out in mourning, lock them up in evening and keep watch they did not stray too far during day. They loved slugs and would fight over every big slug they found (smaller slugs were gulped down before anyone else could intervene). At first, they just wandered off and kept on going from slug to next slug. I spent hours each day herding them back onto our property. But I was surprised at how quickly they got the message, understood and observed the boundaries I set. Then the predators discovered the easy pickings. I heard the commotion and disrupted several attempts to take ducks by, bobcat, coon, eagle, coyote and stray dogs. I saw 3 successful grabs (coyote, bobcat and eagle). Within weeks we had only 9 ducks left, 1 egg and no roast duck. One morning I went to let the ducks out and found all 9 dead. Each had its throat torn open with no indication of any meat taken or eaten. I had built a very secure enclosure using 1 inch chicken wire on the open side for ventilation. So, the only thing I can figure did the deed was small weasel (ermine). The kill site fits what I have heard about their methods and the 1-inch wire would not stop them. Wish I had thought about ermine before constructing duck enclosure.

Misc: 2000 - 2020
I have seen (glimpsed) several ermine on Acres North (our place). They are super-fast. One time I saw a Red Squirrel streaking across the yard, headed for a large cedar beside the house. 20 feet behind was an ermine. By the time squirrel reached the tree, ermine was only 5 feet behind. Within 15 seconds, ermine ran back across yard with squirrel in its mouth.

Another time, I saw an ermine dart across driveway and dive into the hole at the end of a 6 inch drain pipe I put under road The pipe is capped with half inch mesh hardware cloth to keep mice from building a nest and blocking flow. The exit hole is only 8 inch deep by 8 inch wide by 2 feet long before merging with the sloped ground. From my position (10 yards away) there was no way for him to exit without me seeing him. So, I walked quickly forward, without blinking, with the idea I would get a closer look at him as he bolted for safety. But he was not there. The only possible explanation is that he went though the hardware cloth. Impressive. Another time, a rabbit was feeding in our large yard. I saw a white streak shoot from woods on far side of yard toward rabbit. Rabbit bolted into salmon berries on near side of yard with ermine close behind. I heard kill squeal then silence.

Up at shop: 2022
I was looking at my garden east of the shop, while out taking a leak. I saw a rabbit sitting close to a large sword fern about 30 feet from me. I could tell it was aware of me by its alert rigid posture. One instant it was rabbit, the next instant rabbit spang away and was replaced by an ermine. It sat there looking after the rabbit, looked at me and vanished. I have no idea which direction it went, it was there, then not there.

Orca ~ by Griz ~
In 1980 I took my first boat (s/v Seabreeze - Cascade 36), North on my first 2 week cruise, I was alone. This was a few years before I met Trish. 1st night - Bowman Bay, 2nd night - Sunset beach, 3rd night I tied up to a small dock on west shore of Orcas Island East Sound. I can't find it on Google Maps now, I think it was south of White Beach (near the south tip of the Island. I walked ashore, found a bar and hit it off with the bartender. After she got off work, we went down to the boat opened a bottle of wine and had GREAT sex. Wee hours of the morning she went home and I took the remaining wine out into the cockpit. It was fantastic, warm, calm water, clear sky, not a sound. The only intruding manmade light was the faint glow from Anacortes 12 miles to the SE. The sky was filled with more and brighter stars than I had seen since I was 6 years old on the farm in Ridgefield. Then I heard it. It took a while, but it got louder (closer) and I figured out it was a pod of Orca. Not the "blow" of a whale surfacing from a long dive, but the rhythmical breathing of slow traveling whales (Orca). The breathes were not synchronized. As they got closer and I focused harder, I could detect individuals. One was much lower tone than the rest, with longer time between breathes, but not louder (I assume the big male). One was much higher pitch with the least time between breathes and a bit more "blow" (I assume the youngest calf). The rest fell between the 2 extremes with most of them closer to the big male. Never the slightest sound of water splashing or being disturbed, only the breathing. I visualized the Pod on a trek from one place to another, analogous to a family on a long hike. You don't travel at the speed that Dad can do comfortably, everyone needs to find a gait that matches the ability of the youngest/weakest member. I counted about 12 individuals. They moved east to west, probably coming from Rosario Strait, via Obstruction pass, headed toward Canadian waters. When I could no longer hear them, I damn near cried from the emotion the experience left me with. The Orca were just going from one place to another, but they left me with a major gift of connectiveness, an insight into how much we are all entangled.

Seals & Sea Lions ~ by Griz ~
Puget Sound is loaded with Harbor Seals as is the Strait of Georgia. The west coast of Vancouver Island has them also but, we saw a lot fewer there. Generally, I regarded them as fat, dumb creatures who spend all day on rocks, basking in the sun. But I saw a whole different aspect of them while anchored in a Shaw Island cove. It was late (2:00am?) on a warm, calm night. I was in the cockpit with bottle of wine and a little wacky weed, gazing at the stars. I heard a vigorous splashing from across the cove. I could see, by the starlight, a patch of seaweed about 40 foot deep along the opposite shore and 2 harbor seals (one with fish in mouth) bobbing outside the seaweed. As I watched, one of the seals moved parallel to the seaweed, around the end and slowly worked his way along the shore till he was opposite his partner. The partner silently slipped underwater and a few seconds later the inside seal created a hell of a racket as he charged into the seaweed splashing water everywhere. The outside seal resurfaced with fish in mouth and inside seal joined him. I could not tell if they shared the fish or if they took turns. But they were almost 100% successful with the 6 attempts I witnessed. This showed me a lot higher level of planning, strategy and intelligence than I would ever have otherwise given the fat, sun bathers I saw each day.

Sea Lions in the water shows are sleek, intelligent, even cute, as they perform their tricks. My experience with Sea Lions in the wild is much different. The ones I encountered up close were massive, ugly, smelly, aggressive, brutes, that intimidated the hell out of me. Our first major encounter was when we tied up to the end of the dock in a small marina for supplies. As we walked ashore, we passed a large float covered with Sea Lions, tied to the end of a finger pier. On the way back to the boat there was a huge bull laying on another finger pier with his head almost on the main dock. We assumed it was safe to pass, but as we approached, he rose up and roared at us, with ugly brown teeth bared and sending the most god-awful smelling slabber our way. We backed off. A man following us said "what you afraid of?", and passed us, bull rose up and roared at him, he keeps going, bull lunged forward and knocked the man into the water, bull continued forward and dove in after him. We helped pull the man out, bull launched from the water back up on the dock, then roared at us again as if to say "I said no passage". It took the marina proprietor, with long handled cattle prod, to move the bull so we could get to our boat.

One time a herd (or raft) of Sea Lions were frolicking near where we were anchored. As we watched, a young male came over and jumped into our 10' Achilles dingy, almost sinking it. It took him several tries, during which the outboard was completely submerged at least twice. Once he got settled the motor was half under water. I was not gentle with my eviction methods (boat hook, swinging chain to head, airhorn at 4 feet, etc.). What did the trick was bear spray, full face, at 3 feet, while he was roaring at me. We pulled the outboard and dingy onboard so he could not do it again. 10 mins later, he or his twin brother, tried to get on WaterBrother. He bent one of our lifeline stanchions and made a mess, but could not get aboard - lucky for us. We pulled anchor and left the area. It took me 2 days to get the outboard running again.

Mountain Beaver - 7/23/12 ~ by Griz ~
Lots of rabbits again this year. But I think someone wiped out the coyotes because I have only seen one this year (a poorly looking yearling) and have not heard the pup calls we hear when the local den is active.

I've caught several glimpses of the Bobcat, so he is working the rabbit herd.

About a month ago a large skunk walked across the yard (first one I've seen in the almost 20 years we have been here). I think he has set up housekeeping because Robby and I have smelled him almost every day. I may need to trap and relocate him if he does not move on soon.

The big news is I saw a Mountain Beaver waddle from the house up toward the "Woodie". Robby was too slow to see it and we could not find it when we ran out after it. It's the first one I have ever seen. Right after we moved here, I was clearing the back 4 acres of the property (salmonberries and 12-foot-high blackberries in a stand of alders) and found many burrows (several that were obviously active with fresh dirt at the mouth). I was told that it was probably Mountain Beaver but shortly after I cleared the hill side the activity stopped and I have seen no sign of them since. When I was a kid, I heard about them but I have never seen one (even in the zoo). I always heard them referred to as "Rocky Mountain Beaver" but I guess they are properly called just "Mountain Beaver". Info on Mountain Beaver

Bats ~ by Griz ~
Stories to tell.

Sharks ~ by Griz ~
Unknown Shark Story to tell.

Whale Shark Story to tell.

Salmon Shark Story to tell.

Otters ~ by Griz ~
Stories to tell.

Cougar ~ by Griz ~
Stories to tell.