The ongoing mink raft scheme, being carried out by the Cromford Fly fishing Club on the Derbyshire Derwent, in conjunction with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, has seen little activity from mink in the last two weeks.

Now is the time when the females will be seeking out lies to have their young. the males having performed their duties, will take no further part in the offspring's future.

As expected this is a quiet time, while the young are born and raised, so the traps have now been removed and the rafts will serve as a monitor for when the mother and her kits begin to roam along the waterway in search of prey. The kits will be totally dependent upon their mother until around July, when they will go their own way.

Once activity is again picked up via tracks in the clay pots set into the rafts, the traps will be re-introduced and the scheme will again gather pace.

To date, in the short time that the scheme has been running, 8 mink have been trapped and despatched as per goverment guidlines, giving wildlife along the river a well needed boost to their survival as the preditors are removed.

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