A lot has happened these past two weeks at our Evening Mammal Hide in the Cairngorms. The Badgers are still coming in daily, feeding, fighting and mating but there are also the Pine Martens and when they’ve appeared they’ve come earlier than usual.
The Grant Arms brought guests during one of their celebrity weeks with Nick Baker and they came away with multiple Badger sighting and a Pine Marten, the latter earlier than expected and everyone left feeling contented.
One night the action kicked off faster than expected - I hadn’t even had a chance to bait the hide when the badgers suddenly appeared and started feeding as though the area was already baited, much to my disbelief!
When I did bait the hide, there were still Badgers that appeared afterwards for our guests to view. Then a little while later, we had Pine Martens. Yes, plurally. More than one was seen that evening although not at the same time. The male came in, sat on the platform, tucked into the sultanas and the photographers of the group had a field day with him. Indeed everyone was happy. Then when the male had gone, a second Pine Marten came - one of the females. She didn’t stay however, possibly because the food was gone and atmospherically crept through the canopy of the twin cedars.
What my colleagues and I have discovered this week is that there are now at least nine Badgers that we know of - one more than I have seen before and if there aren’t any more unknown individuals out there, there will certainly be cubs later on this year.
Our female Pine Marten is still coming in - the one with the single spot on the bib has been comparatively reliable compared to the male lately and the other female has not been as regular with the seasonal changes.
If you would like to book into our hide near Aviemore you can do so here.
Comments