I've been reading almost all the threads on here about mink. I'm still kinda lost on exactly what "sign" I need to look for to tell if I have mink around.
I have a nice sized creek that I've been looking at for the last few years and I still have no idea if I even have mink around.
The creek has some small fish in it here & there, plenty of squirrels around.
I've seen a couple of ermine out of season but I'm in the same boat for them too.
Any advice helps. Thanks

I don't look for sign really. If there's food and water, there will be mink.

If you look really close st exposed mud/sand you can probably see the tracks if they're not trampled over by other critters sometimes you'll see scary on culverts or rocks near the water . Partial remains of crawfish and frogs in the water can be signs of a minks meal.

For me (who patrols the rivers) the sign I see is invariably tracks. On occasion I find where a mink has helped itself to a trapped nutria or rat. In the early spring I often see them.

Tracks and scat.
After a rain swells the crick, then the water drops down. Go look for tracks in sand and mud.
I often find scat here on top of culverts that the ditches and cricks go through

There's no sand or mud to really speak of, maybe under the rocks in the creek. No crawdads & the warmest the water gets even in summer mo ths is maybe 40 - 42 degrees average is bout 38 degrees. It's all glacial til, trees, snake grass with a little bit of tall grass. But mostly rocks & trees.
I went down after the snow we had yesterday and the only tracks I saw were squirrel tracks running the logs over the creek.

Got a Game Camera? If no A.I. in the vicinity, beg, borrow or steal one (LOL) for use where you might set a trap later. Leave in place for approx. 1 week (or 1 good weather change), check any pictures/videos and move to another spot. These cameras turned a lot of us into dreamers, scheemers and liars when it comes to wild animal behavior and populations. At least it did me. Then if you have animal activity on one, go and use your "baby blues" to see if you can equate any animal pictures to "in the field sign" left by its presence. It will require some shoe leather but seeing a picture is worth that 1000 words' of advice. My Experience..................... the mike

Sounds like you might be a higher elevation? You'll have to look harder for sign than the rest of us. Mink are there if there are fish. You won't have as many as someone in the Midwest. Any little strip of sand that is not ground up granite might hold tracks. Look on logs for wet mink tracks and scratch marks. You might have muskrats - look for them too and if they are there mink are also. Look for bits of grass and roots in pools or on the bottom of pools in protected areas. If it is fast water they are still there but the slower water is where the tracks will be easier to find. Scat lasts a long time so look on rocks along the backs for that. You might have snakes and if you do the mink will be after those. Especially where garter snakes have their big dens. Look down in the rocks where there is dirt. Look at the edge of rocks in water and if you see where something is swimming along a rock keeping it a little cleaner put a 110 there.
I've seen signs of mink and I've seen mink themselves in Southern Montana by Red Lodge and all the way on top of the Big Horns so pretty sure you have some - just not many.

Thanks guys,
I'll give the camera a shot.
Yes I'm @ 6200 feet. Not too much slow water but I'll continue to keep looking.
I've set some traps the last couple of years some baited, some on logs where I've seen squirrel tracks hoping they were tracks other than squirrel.
I'll keep at it & hope for the best.

Any beaver around even old dam sites are great on the small water