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.
A Speedy Return
by admin - 22:49 on 19 July 2011
Keeping a pine marten well fed can be a demanding task.
Blue tits and robins are there as soon as peanut butter appears on the gate; woodpeckers raid The Nutella Tree the moment it's newly stocked. And now Speedy has found the goodies hidden in the not-quite-so-photogenic clump.
I noticed the resident hedgehog earlier in the evening, rootling around beneath the feeders that hang in the apple tree. This was good news, for I'd not seen him for a while and wondered if he'd found a new home following the gardening blitz that's removed much hoggy-friendly greenery.
He seemed less happy to see me and refused to strike any impressive poses so I took a snap for the album and left him in peace. A minute or two later he scuttled across the lawn and under the hedge.
An hour later, when I checked that Mrs Marten hadn't crept into the garden without me seeing, I spotted him again, tucking into her supper. Snappery was pointless, for dusk was well past, so I watched him eat his fill and once again disappear into the hedge. Much wild growth is left at the bottom of the garden but there's equally choice habitat beyond The Rural Retreat's boundary.
No martens have been seen today. It's less than two weeks until August, when in the past two years our mustelid visitors have become nocturnal. Time to catch my award-winning Countryfile snap is running our.
There's always next year.
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