Pine martens

Until two weeks ago I had never seen a pine marten so to see one in real life was the main aim of a trip to Ardamurchan in western Highland, Scotland.  In the end I spent every evening of the week watching them through the window from a distance of about 3m.  Pine martens are mid-sized mustelids, with weasels, stoats, polecats and American mink being smaller, and otters and badgers being larger.  They look to me to be a bit smaller than a domestic cat, with something rather cat-like about their movement and agility.  I suspect all those I saw were female or this year's kits.

Pine-martens, like badgers, are omnivores, meaning it is possible to attract them by putting out food, something that doesn't really work for the other carnivorous members of the family.  In my so far very limited experience they are especially fond of strawberry jam, peanut butter, sultanas and eggs.  Emma, the owner of the chalet where I stayed, puts out a veritable smorgasbord for the martens and badgers every evening and they were indifferent to my lights or to me sitting just a few feet away.  I ended up taking rather a lot of photos and trail camera videos which will take some time to process but here are a few of the early results.

Sometimes there were two, although they weren't very cooperative and never got into a position for a good view of both at the same time.  On one occasion I saw three together but the third was very elusive.

Pine martens are very curious by nature and they often came to have a close look at my lights.

I have more pine marten photos so I'll put them on the blog soon.