After waiting with baited breath (no pun intended) over the last few days for a pine marten to be lured to our pheasant, we finally got lucky! Reviewing the camera trap footage the other morning, we were suddenly jolted awake with excitement as we caught sight of a unmistakably bushy tail on the screen.

 Pine martens are an extremely elusive mammal and are largely nocturnal, making them almost impossible to spot in the wild. Consequently, we feel very lucky to have captured footage of one on our camera traps to show that they are definitely around here at Lowes! In the video below, you can see the pine marten bounding over to the pheasant carcass (which has been dragged off-camera by the hedgehog) and stopping to have a good feed. From our footage, it appears he or she hangs around for ten minutes or so in the middle of the night before moving on.

 So far we have seen the pine marten visit the pheasant two nights in a row, so we are hoping it will keep returning. We are, however, quickly running out of bait due to our greedy hedgehog, who seems to be there all the time! Last night, in fact, we noticed there were actually two hedgehogs hanging around, where before we had only seen one. It seems we shall need to come up with a new plan if we want to continue attracting our bushy-tailed friend!

– Jo Lindsay (Assistant Ranger)