Pine Marten

[Tringa]

We are very lucky here because pine martens are visitors to the garden. However, to be honest if you are in the right area, put food out and the martens find it then sightings will be close to guaranteed.

Since the mid 1980s we have visited NW Scotland sometime almost every year and have had two sightings of wild pine martens but hundreds of sightings of ones where food is provided.

We usually see pine martens in the evening or, via the trail camera, late in the night or in the early hours.

However, this one - he/she is one of last year's young - arrived around 8am yesterday and finished the peanuts put out for the birds, who were not at all pleased by its presence. The hours of darkness are fairly short now (and getting shorter) so daytime views, while not common, are not that unusual.




Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[Wavelength]

Fine one

[DanK]

great capture.

I didn't know that they are omnivores. The fishers we have here are ferocious hunters. I may be mistaken, but I believe that in some parts of the country, they are either the primary or only predator of porcupines. Nothing else is able to get past the quills. Fishers dance around them until the prey is exhausted and then dart in and grab it by the front of the neck, which is unprotected. Given the claws on this one, I'm guessing that it too is a formidable predator.

[Tringa]

Thanks all. I had not heard of Fishers before, Dan. I have learned something.
Although pine martens are predators of almost any small animal it can catch (we are fairly sure a few years ago one took the four young from a blackbird's (Turdus merula) nest) they also eat berries, nuts, seeds, eggs and they seem to have s sweet tooth.

Dave