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Pinemarten

Pinemarten


Postby canisp » Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:23 pm

Whilst browsing google earth i came across this picture of a Pinemarten. It was taken by Christine Smyth of Inverinate, who kindly allowed me to upload it. I have seen a lot of wildlife in the twenty five years i have been hill walking in Scotland, but never a Pinemarten. I believe they are one of the rarest of animals, if a list was made of the rarest animals/birds what would be on it ?.
pinemarten-inverinate.jpg
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby Paul Webster » Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:27 pm

Great pic. I've never seen a pinemarten, though I know they do come to peoples gardens around Lochalsh and Kinlochewe - apparently jam is the thing to attract them with. I've even heard of one living under someone's log-cabin type house.

The rarest animal or hardest to spot in the UK would, I reckon, be the wildcat. I don't think I've even even met anyone who has seen one in the wild...
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby martyn » Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:36 pm

I think - actually I'm pretty certain - my son and I saw a pine marten last June on Skye. Light throat and chest and a thick long dark tail. Caught it for no more than a couple of seconds in the car headlights just before midnight on the road between Broadford and Elgol. Between Kilbride and Torrin the road runs through some pretty dense and unmanaged woodland, shortly before the entrance to the marble quarry so plenty of cover.
If it wasn't a pine marten, I've no idea what it might have been - they are fairly distinctive.
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby maddjock » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:47 am

Im pretty sure I saw a pine martin myself about a couple of weeks ago, again it was at night and it ran across the road in front of the car, getting caught in the headlights. very similar to the photo above.

wildcat - pretty sure I saw one of these as well on the black isle about 4 years ago, about 5am during the summer, so was pretty bright, I had just finished work and I saw it skulking along a dyke for a bit. Really large head and shoulders with a long tail. A lot bigger than a normal cat, not so much in height but in length.

another animal I had only ever seen once in the wild was a red squirrel several years ago, but have since seen 4 in the last 3 weeks. 1 of them was above Strathtay, near aberfeldy, and the other 3 were in Inverness, not a mile out of the city centre. (near the Lochardil Hotel) It is more than possible though that these 3 are just one squirrel though.
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby montgo » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:21 am

I once camped on the shore of Loch Linnie, opposite Fort William. I put my tent up by the Loch side shielded from the road by a large rocky mound. After putting the tent up I walked away, probably only about 4 yards, then something caught my attention, as I looked back to the tent I was astonished to see a Pine Martin wandering around it, sniffing at the tent as it wandered about. I watched it for some time then slowly walked back towads the tent, the PM, on seeing me moveing then just slowly moved off into the undergrowth. Unfortunatly my camera was in the tent, so no pictures. It was a lovely chocolate brown with a bright white bib, with tail it was a good 3 foot long.
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby BVCSK » Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:58 pm

I've never seen a pine martin in the wild but I'm certain that I have seen a wildcat.

Myself and 2 pals were mountain biking near Clachan Yell in Glen Tanner when this beast appeared in the track we were on. This was certainly not a cute pussy and it fair scared the bejesus out of us. It had beautiful markings and a large fluffy ringed tail.

The only other regular sighting of the Scottish Wildcat I have witnessed is at Tennents Bar on Byres Rd in Glasgow !!! One of my favourite pints, from the Cairngorm Brewery and at 5.1% also not to be messed with - enjoy!!

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Re: Pinemarten

Postby HILLFITTER » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:04 pm

Saw pinemartin a few years back coming thru Dull +weem area just sitting beside the road ,really makes your day .You tell people what you saw ,and their like AAAAhhhh A pinemartin oh yes them ,er , what do they ahem , look like again.ha .
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby Myth » Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:57 am

My neighbor feeds them Jam Sandwiches on his back porch - loads in the woods near me.

Seriously - they'll work *hard* for a Jam sarnie...
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby Sinbecks » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:32 pm

Guess I have been lucky...
Seen two in different years by Loch Shiel. This one came into the garden of the cottage where we were staying and began eating some stale fruit cake that we had thrown out for the birds and I was lucky enough to capture it, on film obviously...
They look like a stoat or a weasle but are the size of a ferret

Another one ran across the road in front of me a few years later.

Image
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby maddjock » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:28 am

wonderful picture... :D
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby kinley » Thu May 14, 2009 11:21 am

Image

Image

Image

Don't know how many of you rent cottages up the west coast for hols.

If you do it's well worth taking some cheap jam and peanut butter and raisins and spreading some out in the evening.

We've seen martens at cottages in Ardnamurchan and Torridon, the Kinlochewe area is well known for them, and they're now on Skye, spreading from Broadford.

Like badgers being nocturnal means they seem much scarcer than they actually are.

This is a good time of year too - the females will have kits and given short nights will be out before dark to feed.
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby Caberfeidh » Thu May 14, 2009 2:39 pm

I've seen a few pine martens, by Loch Ness (lots of woodland, relatively few people), on the road near Ullapool,around Loch Tay and on a wooded shoreline near Gairloch. They grow surprisingly big, and look very handsome with their yellow bib and bushy tail.
I agree with Kinley that they are probably a lot more common than people think, simply because most folk are not around while the martens do their thing.
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Re: Pinemarten

Postby Myth » Sat May 16, 2009 10:27 am

Caberfeidh wrote:... I agree with Kinley that they are probably a lot more common than people think, simply because most folk are not around while the martens do their thing.


Yep - I agree too. You see their scat on paths all over the hills - they do seem to like marking right in the middle of a good path.

Saw loads of scat on our Deeside walks when we were done there earlier this month.
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