Pine Martens in Scotland

The chances of seeing pine martens in the wild, by which I mean a place where they are NOT being fed, is low. They do have fairly regular haunts but its all down to the luck of the right place at the . right time.

I'm lucky enough to visit NW Scotland about 4-5 times a year and have seen one wild (as in the definition above) in about 10 years.

Where they are fed it is a different matter. Like many other wild animals that are being fed, they learn and revisit if food is available.

I'm in NW Scotland now and there have been pine martens in the back garden every night for the last 10 or so days. Anytime from 6pm to 6am.

Easter is late next year but I think it will still be too early for the young to be out and about. However, they give birth in early spring and there is a good chance a female with young will be keen to feed.

Good luck

Dave
 
Yes good luck in finding them . I spend around 4 weeks in total per year touring the highlands by motorcycle for the last 15 years and I came across one once as it nearly went under the wheel of the bike . Can't remember exactly where but it was around 20 miles before hitting the pass over to applecross .
 
Tringa said:
The chances of seeing pine martens in the wild, by which I mean a place where they are NOT being fed, is low. They do have fairly regular haunts but its all down to the luck of the right place at the . right time.

I'm lucky enough to visit NW Scotland about 4-5 times a year and have seen one wild (as in the definition above) in about 10 years.

Where they are fed it is a different matter. Like many other wild animals that are being fed, they learn and revisit if food is available.

I'm in NW Scotland now and there have been pine martens in the back garden every night for the last 10 or so days. Anytime from 6pm to 6am.

Easter is late next year but I think it will still be too early for the young to be out and about. However, they give birth in early spring and there is a good chance a female with young will be keen to feed.

Good luck

Dave
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So do you think sites that advertise as Pine Marten hide, it is because they are being fed? Like for example
http://rsmith50.wixsite.com/naturenuts/pine-marten-tours
 
I have been with speyside wildlife, photography was difficult with tungsten lamps. A few years ago so may have changed but a 7d struggled with the lights.
#cruso where is your pals hide, is it south a*rshire?
Good luck
 
nc_killie said:
I have been with speyside wildlife, photography was difficult with tungsten lamps. A few years ago so may have changed but a 7d struggled with the lights.
#cruso where is your pals hide, is it south a*rshire?
Good luck
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I wonder how my 7D MKII would cope
 
They may have changed their lights to meet customer expectations. I found video was ok (first time I used it) and better than stills. Call and ask. Good luck
 
davholla said:
So do you think sites that advertise as Pine Marten hide, it is because they are being fed? Like for example
http://rsmith50.wixsite.com/naturenuts/pine-marten-tours
Click to expand...

I don't know. They seem very confident that pine martens will be seen which might mean they provide food, or it might be the hide is set up to a place they know the pine martens use regularly. Either way it looks likely that there will be a good chance of seeing pine martens, which is a delight in itself, and a good chance of natural looking photos.

The best I manage is like this one - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/pine-marten.685434/

Most of time here the pine martens are jumping on the bird table and window sills and rolling around outside the back door, though they are this year's young and are mad as a box of frogs at times.

However, we feed them and encourage visitors to do the same.

Dave
 
The place i went to a few weeks ago is a private hide and not open to the public and its run by a private individual. He has built a hide on the edge of some woodland and he feeds them very little. He does this for his own pleasure and spends hours watching and getting to know the little critters. I dont know of any commerecal hide for pine martin in scotland that doesnt feed them.
 
markyboy.1967 said:
The place i went to a few weeks ago is a private hide and not open to the public and its run by a private individual. He has built a hide on the edge of some woodland and he feeds them very little. He does this for his own pleasure and spends hours watching and getting to know the little critters. I dont know of any commerecal hide for pine martin in scotland that doesnt feed them.
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Thanks for that. I am in two minds about commerical hides for Pine Marten and other creatures in general.
 
davholla said:
How can I tell which ones are ethical or not? Hard to tell from Trip advisor. This one Scottish photography hides looks tempting
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Mark might well be back on your question and I'd be interested in his view.

Here in the NW me and Mrs Tringa had (and from time to time still have) discussions about our feeding of the pine martens that visit. When we are here we put out food every night. Our concern was/is they would become depended upon our feeding.

Having watched pine martens for about 7 years now we do not think we have caused a problem - but then we would say that wouldn't we?

Our conclusion is based on a couple of reasons. We have seen the same pine martens over a few years. The ones we saw 7/6 years ago are not around anymore but have been replaced by others. Over the short term we see the same ones over a period of several months. The young we saw in May/June are still around now.

Also we know there are times when no food is available for weeks but very soon after food is put out the martens return.

We think the garden is just one place they visit almost every night - if they find food, they eat it; if there is none, they move on somewhere else.

Therefore we hope we have not made the pine martens depend on food here and I hope other places have the same experience.

Dave
 
My thoughts on ethical- for me it’s to allow the pine marten to follow its natural instinct, eat natural foods and not become dependant on the food source available. Bread and jam aren’t natural food but many use this as a food source, the bread fills them up but doesn’t offer much nutrition. Nuts, natural honey etc are ok as it can and will eat these in the wild, eggs are fine as well but often they take them and store them. No live baiting and most of all a limited time with the marten so they can go about their business without intrusion from humans.

I am off to try for golden eagles in just over a week, the hide is run by a guy who rings the birds, records them and has done so for many many years. He only feeds at certain times and the birds don’t get much before the food is tossed out for the resident foxes, The bids don’t come in all the time as they feed naturally in the area. Most of the year the eagles don’t get food from him at all.You are behind a glass window in a hide so the birds don’t know you are there. Food is roadkill or bought from gamekeepers with little or no chance of poisoning etc etc.
 
markyboy.1967 said:
My thoughts on ethical- for me it’s to allow the pine marten to follow its natural instinct, eat natural foods and not become dependant on the food source available. Bread and jam aren’t natural food but many use this as a food source, the bread fills them up but doesn’t offer much nutrition. Nuts, natural honey etc are ok as it can and will eat these in the wild, eggs are fine as well but often they take them and store them. No live baiting and most of all a limited time with the marten so they can go about their business without intrusion from humans.

I am off to try for golden eagles in just over a week, the hide is run by a guy who rings the birds, records them and has done so for many many years. He only feeds at certain times and the birds don’t get much before the food is tossed out for the resident foxes, The bids don’t come in all the time as they feed naturally in the area. Most of the year the eagles don’t get food from him at all.You are behind a glass window in a hide so the birds don’t know you are there. Food is roadkill or bought from gamekeepers with little or no chance of poisoning etc etc.
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Is that a hide open to the public?
 
markyboy.1967 said:
The pine marten one i use is a friend and not for the public but the golden eagle hide is.
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Do you have the contact details? I would love to go assuming I can get permission from the boss. Scotland is a bit far for me.
 
markyboy.1967 said:
My thoughts on ethical- for me it’s to allow the pine marten to follow its natural instinct, eat natural foods and not become dependant on the food source available. Bread and jam aren’t natural food but many use this as a food source, the bread fills them up but doesn’t offer much nutrition. Nuts, natural honey etc are ok as it can and will eat these in the wild, eggs are fine as well but often they take them and store them. No live baiting and most of all a limited time with the marten so they can go about their business without intrusion from humans.
Click to expand...

Agree. Years ago we used to put out bread and jam but were concerned it is, apart from the fruit aspect of the jam, far away from what they would normally eat. Now we use peanuts, admittedly with a bit of jam mixed in and sometime soaked fruit and the odd egg.

We've tried other things from time to time - live mealworms, small piece of raw chicken(a herring gull had that the next morning) and a dead mouse I caught in the loft - all ignored.

Dave
 
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