Stay at home

[Macka21]

Hi all, just joined and saw this thread. We stayed at a place at Appin, Loch Creran last year. The owner of the place noted on his website that Pine Marten visited the lodges. I was a little sceptical and asked him when we got there about them, he said to put out peanuts and we'd see one if we stayed up late enough. I couldn't make it, went to bed at 2pm but sure enough the peanuts were all gone and my wife said she heard him/her around 4am. The owner said it would definitely be the Martens, they didn't even mind a light on the verandah. We are off on the 6th April for 5 days so game on. I have my Canon SLR, an HD video camera and Red Bull. I'll report back with my shots (hopefully). Has anyone got any shots of them? Are they as rare/elusive as I think they are? I gotta say, It'll be a high spot of my life to see one. I'm trying to work out how to rig up a movement activated set up without too much expense if anyone has any ideas? (In case the red bull runs out)

[Caberfeidh]

I saw those camera traps as used in nature programmes for ninety quid in Maplins, a little less online - try googling trail cameras or "nature camera trap". A great bait for pine martens is raspberry jam thickly spread on a digestive biscuit; spread them around your visible area (once the sun goes down so birds don't take them). I used to see martens in Drumnadrookit, they are not so rare as folk think, but they are elusive.

[Ian Johnston]

A friend in Strontian has a Marten visit his bird table on a very regular basis; apparently a jam piece is the bait of choice...

Good luck, they're a beautiful creature!

Kind Regards

Ian

[BoyVertiginous]

Peanuts, jam, peanut butter will all do the trick. Pine Martens have poor eyesight so, if you can guage where they're coming from, position yourself downwind, stay quiet / still and they'll still appear.

Good luck.