Badger & Pinemarten video taken with automatic infra red 'stealthcam' at Eadar Da' Sloc B&B, Lochinver

These video clips work well with Windows Media Player but other video software may well be OK too.  Place your cursor arrow over either the word 'Badger' or 'Pinemarten' in the file names below and double click to open.   Video files are either about 2 or 4 megabytes in size so, depending on your download speed, they may take a while to appear on your screen.  If you have a dial-up connection then it could take an unworkable length of time. There is no audio.

We have been aware for some time that animals were passing through unseen in the night because on occasion 'scat' was found which our local wildlife expert identified as Pinemarten.  The stealthcam was purchased in mid-March '09 to enable us to get some idea of behaviour patterns so that we could try to achieve a 'live' sighting.  As the day length stretches out with the onset of spring we will be interested to see how this affects vistations by these primarily nocturnal animals.  In high summer we only have about 2 hours of true darkness ... we shall see what happens!  NEWSFLASH:  A pair of Martens seen together 4-6-09, may be a breeding pair. Photo below.

We were surprised when we first tried out the camera to discover that actually we had two different visitors attracted to the peanut and jam sandwich bait we were putting out, we have discovered that a badger competes with the marten to be first to the grub!   This surprised even the local experts since there was no knowledge of a badger sett in this area. I have yet to locate it but if I can I will try to get some video from the sett entrance, possibly of badger family activity.

We have rigged a 150 watt (equivalent) low-energy PIR security floodlight which starts dull and brightens as it warms up and have managed some reasonable high-resolution still photos with my Pentax K20D DSLR sometimes supplemented with flash.  The badgers have pretty poor sight and seem to take little notice of the light, but the Marten is much more alert and secretive and there is no doubt that it is slightly 'spooked' by it, tending to stay on the bait for a shorter time.  We have recently erected a slim tree trunk with a feeding platform which only the marten can reach ... and have had some wonderfully comical sightings of the badger at full stretch on tip-toe trying to reach the elevated bait!

Early days as yet .... I'll add / change the videos as more and better footage is recorded.  If you would like to discuss anything concerning this little project please do email me or phone via the links on the main website http://eadar-da-sloc.synthasite.com