Well mania for us because we are so happy to see them though I guess, not so much for the crofters trying to keep their ducks, chickens safe from these cute looking yet wily predators.
The new camera trap came into its own, capturing pine martens all through the night and one morning (having joked about wanting to get two on film........mating!) Lo and behold a saucy pair playfully chasing each other and leaping on one another. So cool - though I doubt mating for real at this time of year? Need to check a bit about them but from what I've read they appear to breed at the same time of year and the male doesn't stay around. Also the young don't seem to stay with mother as long as the otter young do. Not really sure why these particularly two were together- they came along around 4ish each morning. We also watched a single marten at about 10 pm one evening and then a second came out but they were really cautious of each other - one hiding and then the other eating and being spooked and hiding and the other coming back. Their behaviour was so different to the 4 am-ers that they must have been different individuals. (based completely on what we thought we could observe and nothing at all scientific)
The new camera trap came into its own, capturing pine martens all through the night and one morning (having joked about wanting to get two on film........mating!) Lo and behold a saucy pair playfully chasing each other and leaping on one another. So cool - though I doubt mating for real at this time of year? Need to check a bit about them but from what I've read they appear to breed at the same time of year and the male doesn't stay around. Also the young don't seem to stay with mother as long as the otter young do. Not really sure why these particularly two were together- they came along around 4ish each morning. We also watched a single marten at about 10 pm one evening and then a second came out but they were really cautious of each other - one hiding and then the other eating and being spooked and hiding and the other coming back. Their behaviour was so different to the 4 am-ers that they must have been different individuals. (based completely on what we thought we could observe and nothing at all scientific)
These photos were taken with DSLR camera NOT stills from the camera trap! Will post some video from that when we get home. xx
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