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Post by NellyDee on Sept 2, 2015 11:54:05 GMT
Some of you may remember from WAB days, that I was trying to find out what was pinching my nut feeders. Well the annoyance continued as whatever had removed the strips of timber that I had put either sides of the entrance holes to my special red squirrel feeders (to stop the jays getting in). Gotcha! It is the pine martens! I seem to have acquired 3. Yesterday I saw one with most of it's body through a hole in one of the squirrel feeders and to my amazement one pine marten un-hooked the fat square feeder, let it drop to the ground, then dragged it off into the bushes. What is more they have obviously learnt to take the top off the feeder (When I went to retrieve the feeder it was laying there with the top off and the contents gone). I was so engrossed watching them I forgot the camera!
Following on re my red squirrel. Worried that he was not getting his share I put a bowl of monkey nuts, out of sight on the veranda (Nutty passes the veranda en route to his favourite feeder), I think he went into desperation mode, by the end of the day - dashing back and forth he had buried A whole 500g packet of Monkey nuts. I did re-fill the bowl 3 times.
20150829_6 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
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Post by shirl100 on Sept 2, 2015 14:20:13 GMT
Brilliant, wish we had pine martens and red squirrels in our garden - you had better go out and buy a load more peanuts!
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Post by NellyDee on Sept 2, 2015 14:57:56 GMT
I wish I had more reds? big campaign up here to 'Save Our Red Squirrels'. it has taken me three years to encourage Nutty, just wish he would bring a friend. Called him nutty as he just could not work out how to get the nuts, did not know that hazelnuts were edible and was generally a bit thick, everything I tried the jays got in first.They are extremely clever birds!
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Post by Tringa on Sept 7, 2015 19:04:04 GMT
Great story. I know martens like nuts but did not know they would find their way into feeders. However, I suppose once they have discovered the food they will work to get a free meal and they have strong claws and legs. Even though the squirrel has moved during the shot it is lovely photo.
Dave
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Post by NellyDee on Sept 8, 2015 8:29:09 GMT
Great story. I know martens like nuts but did not know they would find their way into feeders. However, I suppose once they have discovered the food they will work to get a free meal and they have strong claws and legs. Even though the squirrel has moved during the shot it is lovely photo. Managed to get very blurred photo of pine marten getting fat feeder off it's hook 20150902_7 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
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Post by Tringa on Sept 9, 2015 17:48:58 GMT
A good record of its activity. Was you bird table about to fall over?
I don't envy your task of keeping food in feeders away from pine martens; for animals with short legs they can't half jump well.
Dave
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Post by NellyDee on Sept 10, 2015 9:41:20 GMT
No the table is upright, in order to get the photo, taken from my bay window, I had to lean round a very large plant, keep myself propped up with elbow against wall and angle the camera so that I could get a shot between it's branches. bit of a comedy scene it was. Top left of the table is my special squirrel feeding box, had to put stripes of wood down one side of each entrance hole (to defeat the jays), the pine martens just ripped away the strips, made the holes bigger and can just get the top half of their body through the hole to get the nuts.
Changing the subject slightly, I read a report recently that said where pine martens are doing well, so too are the red squirrels - hope that is true, as I was concerned, having encourage red squirrel, that the arrival of the pine marten might deter the red. By the way I have tree pine martens a mum and 2 juveniles.
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Post by Tringa on Sept 10, 2015 12:18:32 GMT
Ah, I understand. I remember one of the WAB members saying that pine martens have really strong legs so, unfortunately, the wood on your squirrel feeder was probably just a minor irritation for them.
Good to hear red squirrels are doing well. Although I'm sure martens would eat reds I think there will be branches that can support a red which could not carry the weight of a marten, and many years ago they co-existed.
Dave
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