Pine Martens??
The Pine Marten (martes martes) is one of our most elusive and secretive animals. This has proven so at the hide, but not always thankfully. I have spent many a night at the hide watching these beautiful animals, generally in singles but sometimes in a family group, nicking the bait set out for them. With their sleek dark coat and creamy bib, they are truly a delight to watch. As I said, they are generally quite elusive, but the animals that are visiting the hide are becoming more settled with the set up. As most people are aware, these are wild animals that do what they want, when they want and any amount of praying/wishing/pleading doesn’t always bring the desired results. I’ve always found though, the best tool in any wildlife watchers kit is “patience”. These are generally nocturnal animals and tend to visit in the dusk hours or there about so having the patience and being able to keep quiet more often than not brings the desired result. This might not be at the desired hour of the day that some would prefer it might be in the dead of night or even, if you are very lucky, mid afternoon in some cases!
The first year of the hide being operational has been relatively kind to me and my guests regarding marten sightings, however in some cases less so. It is a game of “patience”, being lucky and also being aware that although some people look upon hides as being no different from a zoo, the animals at a hide are free to visit the area as and when they chose. I know myself from being at the hide every night baiting up, sometimes I get lucky, sometimes not but that is the way the cookie crumbles. As I sometimes use a trail camera, and seeing the marten bait gone the following day, I know I am getting a 100% nightly visit by at least one animal, often several. The timings as I alluded to, can vary quite a bit. In general though, going by my records, there has been roughly a 75% success rate in seeing the animals by my guests. As the year draws on and the light is getting a bit scarce, spotting the martens becomes less likely in daylight and this is certainly proving the case. From 2 weeks ago when I was getting about 3 visits a week in daylight, it’s now down to 1-2 at most but that is the animals behaviour, it does prefer the night for hunting.
I am looking forward to next year if I am still operating the hide as hopefully the two regular females that visit the hide bring their kits to visit. The big dog is still an occasional visitor, probably sniffing out afore mentioned females. He is a BIG boy, probably half as big again as the females but I’ve never managed to get him in daylight hours unfortunately, a wary old campaigner I think. If you do decide to visit the hide, I can’t guarantee the martens or any other species for that matter but I do know they are there and do visit. I’ve had goshawks and sparrowhawks, buzzards and owls popping in but as much as I would love to say you will see them, it’s all down to luck and patience. However, there is a multitude of activity from other stuff to keep you amused though if you do decide to visit the hide hence the reason for me advertising it as a "Woodland Hide".
