Tompkins County, around Ithaca and the south end of Cayuga Lake, holds 197 of New York’s 1,001 mink records, more than any other county. Inlet marshes, gorge streams, and a large community of nature watchers make it the best-documented corner of the state, and Taughannock Falls State Park, up the lake shore, is among the named sites. Erie County comes next with 126. Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, in the Buffalo suburbs, is the top named place in New York with 51 records, ahead of the Erie Canal and Five Rivers Education Center.
A March high and a July peak
The 970 iNaturalist observations set the shape of the year. Records climb to a March high, ease through spring, and peak in July at 137, the busiest month. September through February run much quieter, between 43 and 53 a month. Those spring and summer highs match late-winter mating and the summer stretch when young mink are out and people crowd the trails. Native across New York, the mink holds NatureServe’s S5 rank, secure, with records from Westchester and the Hudson Valley to Jefferson County on the St. Lawrence.
Full species profile
