We got a proper look at our newly found Pine Marten after putting the Bushnell trail cam in to get descent footage... the  Acorn is only good enough to scout out potential areas.

Kinda sure it's a Male... It's a bit more difficult to tell in winter because all extremities are covered with a thick coat..LOL

He seems an assured individual, quite comfortable in his domain! 

Nice clip all in all with a great snippet of his scent floating off into the cold night air. 

We've named him Kyle, after his forest home.

Mrs Brown eating Rowan Berries

So... We froze enough sprigs of Rowan Berries to afford our PM's, 2 sprigs a week through the winter. We thought a natural vitamin/mineral boost would be good for them in the cold winter months. 
Mrs Brown takes full advantage, it's good to see!  

Meg and I decided to put the knowledge we've gained over the past year to the test while monitoring our Galloway Pine Marten's. We wanted to see if we could find PM's in another forest, using experiences and ideas we've picked up and where we think are prime areas for PM's.

We went in search of scats which is the best way to pinpoint potential territories, unless there is snow on the ground then tracking is definitely the best option. We found 5 scats, over two walks, in roughly the same area. We set the Acorn Trail Camera in an area of wind blow trees, and gave the time scale of two weeks for a PM to show up. It seems the PM's can get around their whole Territories in two weeks or less.

 The last scats we found were very fresh so we assumed it would be a wee while before the PM came back around this way.. it actually took 10 days for the PM to show up.  

We put 3 eggs out for a possible visit, checked after a week... we got a couple of visits from a red squirrel. So, I broke the top off an egg so the smell would dissipate better. This is the egg the PM eats in the video.

So...our first Ayrshire - Kyle Forest Pine Marten is in the bag. We're really looking forward to building up footage of this, and hopefully other PM's in the new forest area.

More footage of our Pine Marten's first snow fall of the winter.

Jagger the male Pine Marten ate all the eggs and peanuts before The female 'Mrs Brown' arrived....after the snow!

Mrs Brown had her chance to take eggs at the beginning of the week but chose to ignore them. We like the fact she passed by without taking advantage of our offerings, the last thing we want is the Pine Marten's we monitor becoming dependant upon us. 

gopro burn troot spawning

So.. the clocks have went back an hour for winter, that  must mean the brown trout are heading up the burns to spawn.. We walked to a burn running into Loch Doon for a look today. We saw a fair few trout, mostly around 9". I thought I'd have a go at 'ginniling' one but I was a bit rubbish at it..  I was much better 30 years ago... 🙄

This Is Jagger our large male Pine Marten having one last check to make sure he hasn't left any eggs...just as day breaks.

I made this feeding box, I think the Marten's will work it out quite quickly.. I want to try and keep the PM's on camera for longer so this is a prototype. It will hopefully keep the crows off the eggs too but they might work it out as well!

This Little fella has been visiting everyday while we change sims and put eggs out for the Marten's. He gets some meal worms each time... He comes right up to us and shows no fear from us or Pip.

The Crows

The Crows have eventually found the eggs We leave for the Pine Marten's. They have been every day since... we'll need to keep the eggs in feeding boxes from now on.