My mammal year

2023 has been mostly about mustelids, from weasels and stoats in my garden, to otters nearby, to pine martens in Ardnamurchan, with badgers here and there.  Other mammals have been foxes, mice, shrews, voles and even a roebuck in the garden, not to mention rabbits and squirrels.  Oh, and a bat I rescued from a pond.  Here are some highlights.

PineMartenCam

You won't be surprised that as well as my cameras I took a few trail cameras to Ardnamurchan last month.  Although the pine martens were extremely co-operative with normal photography I wanted some video away from the feeding station.  I set up nearby and put out some food (raisins and peanuts) to keep them interested.  Notice how the marten scent-marks the rock as it leaves, something all mustelids do frequently.

I also tried my old Wingscapes Birdcam 2.0 which takes white flash (colour) stills rather than videos at night.  Two martens turned up but were rarely in a good position when the camera fired.

On the last three nights I also tried to get video of a pine marten climbing.  I took with me a stout curvy stick and baited it with strawberry jam and peanut butter.  The first night the stick wasn't high enough and the marten just leaned against it and didn't bother to climb.  The second night was better but I hadn't allowed quite enough room in the field of view for the marten at the top of the stick.

And on the last night there was a bad reflection from one of the other lights on the trail camera lens, plus a bit of spider's web in the way!  It is probably still worth a look as there is a good view of how the pine marten uses its claws.

For much of the time the marten had its back to the camera, whichever way round I had put the branch.  It was a learning process for me and if I return at some stage I shall have plenty of ideas on how to improve the videos.

The egg thief

Pine martens are truly omnivorous.  My field guide lists their food as voles, mice, shrews, squirrels, rabbits, birds and their eggs, amphibians and insects.  It says they also eat honey, berries, nuts, fungi and carrion.  So almost anything.  I know from experience that they also like jam, peanut butter, peanuts, sultanas and raisins.  I planned to take quail eggs with me to Ardnamurchan but then I couldn't get hold of any.  I had thought hens eggs would be too big for them but not a bit of it.  Emma put out one egg each night as well as all the other food and the egg was the first thing to disappear.  The first marten on the scene would take it, either to hide or to eat under cover, before returning for the other food.  It took me many attempts to get pictures because they are so quick but on the last night this one was a bit slower and came towards me so I managed these few photos.

Pine marten portraits

More holiday snaps from Ardnamurchan.  I think these are my favourites, partly because of the planning and imagining that went into them.  I drove up to Scotland with the car loaded with cameras, trail cameras, tripods, lights, chargers, pine marten food, and props for the photos. Two things I included were a hollow tree trunk and a piece of old terracotta drain pipe that I saved from a skip.  After a bit of trial and error over the first two or three nights I managed to tempt a marten in at the far end and through to this end of the tree trunk, using strawberry jam.

Two nights later the trick worked with the pipe.

Pine martens are quick learners and by the last night it had worked out that it didn't need to crawl through the pipe but could come round to this end instead, but at least I already had what I wanted.  Very satisfying.

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.