Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Three Hungry Mouths
by admin - 23:29 on 07 July 2011
There wasn't going to be a post tonight, for nothing of even vague interest happened today – certainly no marten sightings in daylight.
But close to 11pm, in the gloom I noticed a pale bib on the gate which revealed that the Nutella had worked its magic again. Its owner, much too small to be Master Marten, jumped off as I approached the window and landed beside – a second marten.
I'd only a moment to absorb the surprise when a third one appeared on the gate. Three pine marten kits all at once in The Rural Retreat's garden is a sight never witnessed until now. Fantastic!
The three kits. If you can't see them, click on the snap
to go to Flickr then hover your mouse over the picture.
The light was way too poor to hope for even a quarter-decent snap but I had to try to record the scene for posterity. Autofocus wouldn't work in the dark so I did my best manually and tried to keep the Pentax steady at 1/4sec exposure. The result was an appalling snap, yet one that's an instant favourite.
Between them, the kits took no time to polish off the Nutella. The egg was ignored again (although yesterday's was eaten overnight, presumably by an adult less fixated on sweeties). Between mouthfuls the trio bounced around the garden, made spectacular leaps off the gate and out of the tree and scored full marks on the cuteness chart.
If they keep coming back my Nutella costs will soar. It's a price definitely worth paying.
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